Allow me to break instance if not platform wide rules for attempting to inject some nuance into the discussion.

The discussion around intellectual property, especially copyright but it bleeds over into patent, is bent past yield on this platform. I mean, you’ve got the “Mao did nothing wrong” crowd who think communism isn’t just a red herring, and you’ve got the disaffected western kids who’ve spent a lot of their lives living under the thumb of megacorporations making their lives worse for a buck often using IP laws as a bludgeon. Both groups are of the opinion “IP BAD.”

The Wright Brothers patent on the 3-axis control system for heavier than air craft was applied for, granted, and enforced in good faith. That part was the system working, the men who did the work to develop a technology were given sole right to monetize it.

The problem specific to the Wrights is that they, especially Wilbur, were unwiped ass grade businessmen. They spent more energy trying to keep anyone else from profiting from their invention than to monetize it themselves. Wilbur lived only 9 years after their first flight, spending most of it living in hotels traveling from courtroom to courtroom suing any would-be aviators before dying of typhoid fever at age 45, with Orville blaming the stress of the patent suits for his brother’s condition.

They sold very few airplanes, they did basically no development on them; the Europeans were developing wheeled landing gear, enclosed cockpits and monoplanes while the Wrights were occasionally slapping together an open frame pusher with skids. Wilbur died in 1912, Orville sold his stake in the Wright Aircraft Company in 1915, and basically here ends their legacy. They took the first steps on mankind’s journey to the sky, and then tried their damnedest to make sure nobody took the second one.

They didn’t really build that many airplanes, they didn’t develop the technology much further, they sure as fuck didn’t license the technology to others, they just…sat on it.

Their patent was on wing warping for lateral control of the aircraft. Curtis developed aelerons so as not to infringe on their patent. Wright brothers tried to sue anyway.