[jessriedel]

> I would like to point out that our patent system is basically something like this: We as a society will protect your intellectual property rights for your machine only if you show us your blueprints.

Sure but, right or wrong, the general consensus of developed countries is that software is protected even if it is closed source. (That is, they have decided that patent protection requires disclosure but copyright protection does not.) A few other countries may disagree, but the whole point of TPP is to harmonize disagreements because (it is claimed) the frictions they introduce are worse than the micro-optimizations that individual states make.

Incidentally, in practice these sorts of disclosure agreements are used by states like China for protectionist reasons, not as part of some open-source ideal.