I got my first patent about two years ago. I barely consider it an accomplishment in any way. I've innovated and invented way better shit that can never be patented due to economic feasibility, opsec or some combination thereof.

Broadly speaking, most corporations that sponsor the patentable work stipulate that you assign all rights to them. Furthermore, a patent at the end of the day is really just an expensive permission slip to enter an even more expensive litigation that may or may not pan out. The reality is that thanks to the wonders of the state, the enforceability of most patents is suspect at best. The government officials rubber stamping it just want to meet their quota.

One of my favorite components of the patent economy is that a lot of competitors will stockpile the patents and use them in horse trading. In other word: oh yea you wanna sue me over Patent A that you hold? Well I'll sue you over Patent B that I hold. Or we can just make a deal and stay out of court.

Personally, I don't hate the idea of intellectual property. Yea there needs to be an incentive to innovate and reap the benefits of solving hard problems. But there's just gotta be massive reforms because the patent system in the US is a train wreck. Can't speak for other countries but I'd guess they're as bad or worse.

As an aside: As if this corporate rent seeking weren't bad enough I know for a fact I'm the one of the only ones that actually designed/knows how the invention works on the patent. There were a couple guys left off out of the 5 names shown. They slapped a bunch of middle managers on there, (some before me) that either barely knows how it works, don't know how it works or don't know how anything works.