[webmaven]

> This differs from a service like the USPS or Amtrak that address a market failure.

I think you may not understand the underlying economic forces.

Patents are explicitly addressing an existing market failure (that of suboptimal funding of innovation due to free rider disincentives). The mechanism is a grant by government fiat of an exclusive right for a limited time, enforced by the courts, and these grants (and the products covered by them) then become subject to ordinary market forces.