[drallison]

Patents are constitutionally mandated.

Article I Section 8 | Clause 8 – Patent and Copyright Clause of the Constitution. [The Congress shall have power] “To promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries.”

The Register in this article gets it wrong.

Under the Department of Commerce, the USPTO's core mission is to protect intellectual property, or IP. Creators file patent applications in hope of keeping competitors from copying their inventions without permission, and patents are supposed to allow businesses to thrive with their own novel designs while not stifling wider innovation.

The Register's focus is on the protection of intellectual property for businesses. The Constitution however mandates patents and copyright to promote the progress of science and useful arts [for the people] and offers a time-limited limited monopoly to inventors and authors as the means progress is promoted. The concepts are quite separate and distinct.