The framers of the U.S. Constitution saw the need to encourage and reward inventors and authors. A U.S. patent grants the owner the right to exclude others from making, using or selling the patented invention in the U.S. for seventeen years from the date the patent is granted. Every such investment is a gamble. Such investments would not be made if competitors could copy successful innovations and creative works of others at will. The limited duration of a patent gives successful inventors a necessary head start in recouping the fruits of their investment, thereby enabling them to invest in further research.
Patents are property.
Patent rights may be sold and licensed. Many corporations, research organizations, and individuals, as well as the Federal Government, own patents-sometimes substantial banks of them. Periodically, spent bits had to be brought to the surface at great cost. Hughes Tool Company owned patents on inventions that solved the problem. Competitors began to copy the patented Hughes Tool bits.