The modern patent system evolved over time, but the roots of the concept can be traced back to Renaissance Italy.
The first known patent law was established in Venice in 1474. This Venetian law granted inventors the exclusive rights to their inventions for a limited period, aiming to encourage innovation by protecting the rights of creators.
However, the patent system as we know it today, with standardized procedures and legal frameworks, further developed in England, particularly with the Statute of Monopolies in 1624, which is often considered the foundation of the modern patent system..
Please do your own research on the impact of patents since WW2, e.g.:
For the impact and offically filed complaints/fears even by US officials you'd need to dig deeper (but you should be able to find the papers from the late 50s/early 60s in the gov archive) - especally the problems of the vastly enlarged protection time from 5 to 99 years and "indefinitly" for Walt Disney. On the legal problem on "who wins what" a simple web search will suffice.
There are patent behaviours done by "patent trolls" where a company acquires patents without the intention of developing or manufacturing products based on them. Instead, they focus on enforcing these patents against others through litigation or licensing demands.
Patent trolls typically target businesses that are using technology covered by their patents, seeking settlements or royalties, which can lead to costly legal battles for the accused parties. Their practices are controversial because they can stifle innovation and impose financial burdens on legitimate companies.
This — I agree — is despicable. Protecting innovators is not.
Patents are not made for protecting inventors. Innovators are usually exploited by investors and lawyers (there are notable exceptions, but theses are rare as the american-dream-come-true). Inventors don't have the money to fight patent cases or "protect" their invetions. Patents are good for attracting investors - just like light does flyes (or better poop for the other kind of flies). That's my experience of living 20 years with patents (and talking to a lot of involved people). Just my 2¢
You have a tendency for "abusive generalisation". If you make such statements
then document them with proof.
So that's just your opinion and That's not my experience in 40+ years. I've seen lots of innovators make millions, employees being generously rewarded for each patent the company they work for file under their name (on top of their salaries, stock options, ...), etc... in groups of diverse sizes and around the world.
That sounds tedious. Do they make interesting conversation over dinner?
I might recommend living with a spouse, or pet animals. It's much more agreeable, and especially the former tends to give much more insight into how the world really works.
You assume much and don't know more.
I stopped being a pro after kidney operations and complications put me through 10 years trauma. Before then I had 20 years of staying current in just the part of the field I worked in and my eyesight was fading at the end of that.
By the time smartphones were out, I didn't want the tiny screen.
What I advise is to build a SIMPLE foundation, not do the newest thing. Know what it is all built on and the science behind it, what it takes to get there and make new, not just be a follower, a USER.
What I know is plenty to automate fast and smooth with Arduino but the basic things, not every bit extra. You want that then don't sleep at all and still No One Knows Everything, as knowledge increases the experts get niched, Toffler was right when he wrote Future Shock almost 60 years ago.
I do not know every frikking thing but what I know, I know well.
Play games, go ahead, know less and less about more and more, it's your life, superficial your way through JEE, see how that works!
The band Pink Floyd made a song named Time. It still applies.
You are young and life is long and there is time to kill today.
And then one day you find, ten years have got behind you,
no one told you when to run, you missed the starting gun.
The next album had the song Welcome To The Machine.
In your this whole message, The thing which made me extremely sad was that you lived in a part of the field you worked, and that too for 20 years! How you managed to live at such a place! A farming field!
But a 10 years trauma!? What such a big thing happened that you suffered from 10 years trauma! That's a very big time!
The field of work, programming, was huge in the 80's and 90's, even bigger today. The word field refers to like field of medicine where how many kinds of medical doctors, specialists and generalists do you know of? Or the field of electronics, who works on what? When there is more to know than one person can cover, there are fields of study, of work. In your school, no one teacher does every classroom!
I almost died several times in 2000. Many operations and complications, long trauma ended in 2011.
How you managed to live at such a place! 