From grade school on, we are taught that in American business, success results from delivering a better product for a lower price. Not that it always works that way in practice, but on the basic level, we view it as a given that consumers benefit when businesses are free to test new ideas in the marketplace.

Patent law, inscribed in the Constitution, was designed to support this notion, giving inventors and innovators the right to a time of exclusivity in order to profit from their idea. The exclusivity of patents creates an incentive for fresh innovation and development, as well as providing competitive fire for established market players to stay ahead of the next upstart.