A period of exclusivity presents a barrier to entry to other companies, allowing the firm that developed the invention sufficient time to recoup its investment. Copyright or trademark protection may be a better choice for many. Another name for commercialization is applying what's been learned in a basic laboratory to the public good. We obviously don't want to just take what was learned and sit on it. So in that sense, application is important.
Commercialization is part of that.
In 1980, Congress passed landmark legislation known as the Bayh-Dole Act. This law permitted universities to take title to all inventions and discoveries arising from federally-funded research. Bayh-Dole also required universities to make every effort to ensure that these inventions were brought into public use as soon as practicable. Universities have found that, in most cases, the most efficient way to meet this latter requirement is by having commercial firms develop, manufacture and distribute products based on its researchers' discoveries. But this increasingly close proximity to industry can pose special problems for academic institutions.