[Tor3]

Please explain its true purpose then. The "exclusive rights in exchange for publishing" seems to have been the very idea behind patents for hundreds of years, all the way back to Jerusalem and Venezia according to Wikipedia, and also defined as such in the modern patent systems established later, in the US and elsewhere.

[teddyh]

IIUC, U.S. patents were constructed to be an immigration policy tool. “Come to America, get paid for your knowledge!” This would encourage people who knew how to build and make things to immigrate to the U.S. Note that patents are an optional part of the constitution; not an inherent right of inventors.