[zozbot234]

> Without some protection for original research being published, genuine inventors are forced to keep their ideas secret and/or find other ways to protect them.

Publication of "secrets" and general know-how can be incented via post-facto prize awards. Unlike patents, these don't forbid anyone from making use of the innovation unless they pay up. They replace a focus on enforcement - with publication often a mere afterthought in practice - with one on publication itself.

[MattPalmer1086]

I do like the idea of prizes, they seem to work quite well for some well defined problems that needs solving.

I'm not sure they would prevent ideas being kept secret for most forms of commercial research though. Publicly funded research should be available to everyone in any case IMHO.