The traditional rocket companies have no interest in reducing launch costs. Now they're looking like fools for letting SpaceX patent critical tech they could have developed 20 years ago.
SpaceX doesn't patent anything[0]. Tesla does file for patents, but has basically made all their patents free to use for all[1]. Seems like Musk is just not a fan of the patent regime.
Yeah, but if they'd gotten the patents then they could profit off them (i.e. rent-seeking). Elon Musk getting the patents removes those revenue streams.
[0] http://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-patents-2012-11
[1] https://www.tesla.com/blog/all-our-patent-are-belong-you