[AnthonyMouse]

> The idea that alternative monetization strategies are workable in the large scale is almost self-refuting. Patents don't preclude you from developing technology and releasing it into the public domain, so long as you get there first. But it seems like companies motivated by patent protection consistently "get there first." That is itself a validation of the incentive structure created by patents.

There is a baseline level of research which will be done even without the patent system, e.g. because Verizon would rather spend fifty million dollars improving radio efficiency than an extra billion dollars in a spectrum auction. If you provide a patent system on top of that, they take the patent even if it wasn't necessary for them to do the research. That isn't proof the patent grant was the incentive for that research, only that it was the incentive to apply for the patent on it.

If you want the real numbers you need some way to distinguish those cases from the ones where the invention wouldn't occur without the patent grant.