All that needs to occur is for Patents to move out of the 1950s mindset and embrace the reality they now exist in.
Its a tad more difficult than just changing Patents though.
The barrier in the past was that communication was difficult and ideas were hard to copy without being sneaky or within range of whomever thought it up, though that started to change around the 1700s due to a marked increase in how fast word got around, which has only grew faster since.
The only satisfiable route is dire secrecy in companies, which the most obvious draw back is that, how do we know its humane or the like, though even now i doubt much is stopping any company from acting in such a way, though the difference is simply Legal and Not.
Perhaps if we move past petty corporate affairs into a more strange system of say binding agreement of patent protection, not by government but by two bodies that want to work together, IE a research institute and an industrial company, the Industrial company shops around for ideas that sound like they could be good and agree with said company a temporary merger (umbrella so to speak) to develop and create whatever said company had the idea for. (thought this up in a few minutes i might add, so whatever)
Of course this is a world where governments have become more or less irrelevant and patriotism turns to company loyalty.
Though i doubt it would last very long.
I really dont know what else to suggest, its rather difficult arguing about secrecy of ideas when you know that ultimately we will end up united in some fashion (obviously not ala Star trek, but implied similiarly) and ideas should end up for the good of all, though right now that would be quite impossible with relatively limited resources.
The great implication here is, if we could create anything from anything (I know, just for this hypothetical question) and so on, would it be allowed to exist anyway?
