The newsworthy aspect of this is "broad, sustained protection". The parent comment directly questions this, and it's a very reasonable thing to ask; particularly with recent events showing a questionable job at it.

If you make a claim for a new solar cell technology that doesn't degrade over a century, people can question whether that claim is true or not, without implying that solar technology should not be researched.

And there's certainly no need to speculate on people's intentions, like questioning if someone is making excuses for big oil.