Tesla boss Elon Musk hints at technology giveaway

The USA has forgot it, but this is why we have patents: to stimulate people (and companies) to publicize their technology instead of hiding. The most important function of patents is avoiding science and tech secrets.

This is why patents on functionality rather than methods (as are most software patents) are bogus. A patent for "recognize a phone number in a text field" is useless for society because it does not tell us how to accomplish that, just what need to be accomplished.

One should be able to patent a specific way of building a lamp. This way, it will not be worth to keep it a secret, as the legal protection is more secure than obscurity. OTOH, Patenting the concept of "a device which illuminates a room with electricity" should not be acceptable.

This comment from Musk shows that the patent system in broken both ways: it prevents what should be stimulated (creating new science and tech, even for the same applications) and stimulates what should be prevented (tech secrecy).