Open Source accomplish exactly the opposite of what patents are for: instead of encouraging innovation by providing financial incentive (from temporary monopoly on selling said innovation) it discourages it because it basically ensures that you&#x27;ll never make any money on your invention.<p>Maybe I&#x27;m missing something but there aren&#x27;t many examples of truly innovative open source software - most of OSS projects even describe themselves as &quot;Open Source alternative to [insert innovative commercial product here]&quot;