[Brian Griffin]

The patent system really should be eliminated except to protect specific single molecular entities pending FDA approval as a marketable drug and for say 17 years thereafter.

There are thousands of really smart people capable of solving even very tough problems.

[Jagermonster]

There are thousands of really smart people capable of solving even very tough problems.

True, but why would they dedicate their time to solving those problems? Compensation, of course.

(Congress has the power "[t]o promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries"). Congress set up the patent system so that it encourages advances in technology in two ways:

(1) Congress offers a big prize to inventors who advance technology: a limited monopoly (patent) on the advance. If the advance is actually a significant advance in technology, the value of that monopoly is large. If the advance is not significant, the value of the monopoly is small, or even non-existent.

(2) The grant of a limited monopoly on one kind of solution to a problem encourages inventors to look for other solutions to the problem, which also advances technology. The other solutions may also be worthy of a patent.

Note that the patent term is relatively short: 20 years from the date of the application. The deal Congress strikes with the inventor requires the inventor to teach (in the patent) the public how to make and use the invention. After the patent term expires, the public is free to make and use the invention without the monopoly.

It is actually a pretty good deal. The free market dictates what patents have value, and which do not, and the substance of all patent applications, both valuable and not, are contributed to the general body of knowledge.

Remember, things that are simple for you are not necessarily simple for other people. Congress decides to dangle a monopoly in front of you to encourage you, a clever person with training and skill in a certain useful art, to keep on solving problems.

Even if it is your employer who gets the patent, rather than you, or even if it is your competitor who has the patent, the broad patent system encourages problem solving in areas that may not otherwise have been explored.