> That's what patents are for. They are to reward the risk takers.
That isn't what patents are for. The intent of patents is to get inventors to disclose their inventions to the public for the benefit of all. Rewarding the inventor is the incentive that make this happen, makes it work, not the goal.
According to my copy of the US Constitution the purpose is "To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts..." and whether this promotion is intended to reward inventors or to convince them to disclose (or both) is open to a great deal of interpretation. Of the two proposals made regarding IP during the drafting of this document one was strictly copyright and the one that covered patents was very clearly about inventors getting a payday...
Science and Arts are public things, promoting their benefit is for the public good. If the goal were about giving inventors a payday, they wouldn't be required to disclose their inventions to the public at all, they'd just be given ownership of the idea forever. One could argue it was designed to help them both I guess, but when founding a nation, it's the nation and thus the public that you're looking out for. Giving a payday to inventors just doesn't make sense as a goal, but it makes perfect sense as an incentive to achieve a large goal.
That isn't what patents are for. The intent of patents is to get inventors to disclose their inventions to the public for the benefit of all. Rewarding the inventor is the incentive that make this happen, makes it work, not the goal.