Internet ideas are rarely patented and rightly so, he says: patents create a temporary monopoly which tends to stifle competition.

互联网点子难获专利，现实也确实如此，他称：专利引发暂时性垄断，这往往会遏制竞争。

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That could pose a threat to the temporary monopoly Nintendo was poised to get on portable 3-D gaming when its handheld game system launches in March.

CNN: LG unveils world's first 3-D smartphone

Until 2002, Biogen had the MS market to itself because of a law that grants a temporary monopoly to medicines for rare ailments, known in biotech as orphan diseases.

FORBES: Biogen Idec Hits A Nerve

But the challenge has always lain with the first half of Lincoln's phrase--that is, how to stoke that genius through a system that both rewards the inventor with a temporary business monopoly and protects the competition that lies at the heart of the free-market system.

FORBES: The smother of invention