I understand the need for patents although I really really dislike them and what they're doing on a grand scale. In the case where a small company makes a discovery but doesn't have the resources to develop the product as fast as larger companies would, I definitely see the need for a patent system. The patent basically stops others from 'stealing' their idea.
But what if the patents were limited to 1-2 years and after that it would be public domain? That way the initial inventor would gain the advantage of a head start (and 1-2 years is huge by todays standards) and only hindering global development by a year or two.
Adjusting term limits on patents (downward) certainly makes sense in the tech industry, though 2 years feels short to me. It probably makes sense to look at how long it took various successful companies to get established, and set the time limit to that kind of time scale. That way, if I have an invention that I want to build a company around, I have a reasonable period of time to get it off of the ground before I have copycats on my back. Their ramp-up time will be much shorter, as I will have taught them how to make the thing that I've built my business on.
But what if the patents were limited to 1-2 years and after that it would be public domain? That way the initial inventor would gain the advantage of a head start (and 1-2 years is huge by todays standards) and only hindering global development by a year or two.