Patents have their pros and their cons. Providing an entity with exclusive rights to initially market and sell their product without fear of competition reduces their risks and allows them a large enough cushion to at least recapture in profits the money that went into that product's development. In that sense, IP could be seen as encouraging innovation. IP also protects smaller companies that have more hurdles to overcome in their initial stages from simply having their products stolen, copied, outproduced, outdeveloped, and outright devoured by a giant corporation. When the patent system is abused though, IP can be used as a tool to stifle competition, price gouge the consumer, and create a bunch of money leeching lawsuits to the benefit of lawyers. Overall, I think the patent system is probably a force of good, but it needs some more tuning.
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