[Nitramp]

    Patents are, by definition, public.

That's actually the telling sign of the dysfunctional patent system. Companies want to use patents to prevent everybody else from doing something similar, and in this case, even from just talking about it (which is obviously ridiculous).

Patents used to be a framework for sharing technological progress without giving up ownership, i.e. make it easier for everybody else to build on other's progress - that's long gone.