I don't own my ideas? (Score 1)

Wait a second. Didn't cyrix reverse engineer intel's 486 and were allowed to sell it? Doesn't pepsi compete with coke and coke's secret formula? How does owning a patent stop compition? All a patent does is stop someone else from competing by producing the exact same product. Why should I go through the effort of coming up with an original idea and have someone else sell it? If a second company comes along and make a better product, great. Society benefits. But, if all the second company does is steal my patent and sells the exact same product, how does society benefit.