-MIKE- wrote:

"monopolies are encouraged" is an interesting way to look at protection
of intellectual property. :-)

That is exactly the deal with a patent or copyright. The inventor (or author)
gets a monopoly for a limited period of time in return for putting the work in
the public domain at the end of that time. Copyright times have gotten way too
long in my opinion, but that is a side detail.

If an inventor wants to protect something indefinitely, they can keep it as a
trade secret (like the formula for Coca-Cola). But that doesn't protect them
from independent invention.

-- Doug