Ease asks: "Who benefits the most from free patents?"

IMO, it isn't DOMESTIC big business, but foreign (Asian) big business. Here's why:

Who owns the most patents, by far?  American big business.

Does American big business make any money off these patents? Duh. An indicator of this are news bits about Asian knock-offs "costing" American big business a lot of money. A lesser known fact is that our trade deficit and GNP are measured based on criteria developed to measure economic performance during the depression era (FDR instituted their development by the big business brains of the time so he could have a clue as to whether his initiatives were having a positive or negative affect). Thus, the criteria are out-dated, based on export of oil, minerals, ags and hard goods (how much oil do we export these days? LOL). Thus, IP is not in the mix, skewing the numbers drastically through omission of one of our biggest export "products". And thus, our economic condition is in reality far better than depicted due to out-dated metrix.  Weird thing here: Some current big business brains have suggested that the criteria be updated to provide a more accurate picture.  The thought of such action is consistently defeated by the powers that be. WTF?

Sorry for the diversion, but I find all that rather amazing.

In any case, the people spending huge money on R&D are the ones with the patents, and the ones who would suffer most. And that's American big (tech/bio/agro) business.

JMHO,

SGE