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* If the execute well on that idea, they do get credit, in the form of business. If you come up with Korean tacos first, and they're good, you get lots of business. We don't have to start shutting down your competition and guaranteeing you're the only Korean taco stand in town in order for you to benefit from your work.*

Invention and innovation cost a lot of money. The taco example won't work but if you invest a ton of money to develop something, you deserve a temporary monopoly on the innovation/invention so you could get a return on your investment.

If anyone would be allowed to copy you, the margins go way down and you'll never profit on the investment.

The goal is to promote progress; exclusive rights are a sacrifice, for a limited time only, made in order to benefit the public.

I don't see the conflict here. The public gets to enjoy your innovation/invention after a period of time which is designed to give you incentive to innovate/invent.

Without that temporary monopoly, no one would invest in major R&D.




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