Li Chen knew full well that systems such as patent protection were essential. They fundamentally safeguarded people's motivation, using profit to drive cultivators to act.
Yet those very profits could make an endeavor succeed or bring it to ruin.
He had already seen something that should have encouraged invention and innovation turn into a tool for capital to reap profits. Even the Puppet Masters of this world could become slaves to money under its power.
Fortunately, the circumstances of cultivators were ultimately different from those of mortals, allowing Li Chen to advocate his ideal of free sharing with less resistance.
So far, Li Chen had already made core technologies such as mechanical intelligence architecture and rune script restrictions openly available. Rather than diminishing his profits, this had brought him even greater benefits.
But he also saw that absolute freedom to share could itself cause harm. Many impoverished inventors would be unable to protect their interests and would have no means to carry on.
Thus, he merely advocated and praised this kind of open sharing, without demanding it.
Not everyone could earn money through advantages elsewhere, as he did, to sustain production and operations. Yet granting a monopoly for a fixed number of years lacked the necessary responsiveness, which was why innovations such as false cores required this new approach.
Li Chen wanted to put his philosophy into practice, using cultivators' self-discipline and self-reflection, along with their formidable ability to enforce decisions at critical moments, to restrain the greed involved.
The overall principle was to assess the dividends of a given patent promptly and effectively, determine the profits its creator ought to receive, then have all parties willing to participate in its commercial operation contribute a share. This would reward the inventor while promptly buying out the patent and turning it