zlacker

This is the precise thing that patents are designed to prevent: to keep the market from turning into a race to see who can outsource most efficiently to China and inundate the public most completely with advertising.

Patents were largely designed to enable the state to have a selectively published library of what was being invented in the country and to reduce the power of trade guilds, who had huge power at the time. Offering a limited monopoly backed by force of law was one of the few incentives that worked for acquiring access to the kind of trade secrets you needed to keep your edge on the battlefield.

>>lotsof+(OP)
Seems weird that you would have them publicly published for your enemies to read if that were the sole motivation.

>>cma+Me
You don't. Patents are selectively published according to national security criteria.

>>lotsof+en
Nice distinction between 'reason' and 'rationale'.

>>webmav+Xw
Always be wary of a precise thing as explanation for stuff existing in the real world, doubly so if the stuff predates the thing.