[ColanR]

IIRC, snowboards are a counter-example to this article. The design was never patented, and the original company did pretty well on the principle that 'a rising tide floats all boats'.

Edit. The article makes me think of the different (extreme) failure modes of companies run by experts in different sub-departments. An accountant might run the company into the ground with bean-counting, a marketer might sell! sell! sell! what they've got without regard for quality, an engineer might forget to find customers, and apparently a lawyer might protect their idea so far as to prevent anyone else from helping popularize the idea. Everyone thinks their own tool is perfect for all the nails...