Fred Cowan | Mar 29, 1998 | 6 min read
The United States patent system, as envisioned by Benjamin Franklin and provided for in the Constitution, has a mandate to stimulate innovation and commerce to benefit society. To accomplish this, inventors obtain patents to protect intellectual-property rights by creating temporary monopolies to market inventions without competition. A major tenet that "Basic research is the source of fundamental knowledge that eventually leads to innovation, technology development, and economic growth" (Rep.