Before then [the adoption of the United States Constitution], any man might instantly use what another had invented; so that the inventor had no special advantage from his own invention. The patent system changed this; secured to the inventor, for a limited time, the exclusive use of his invention; and thereby added the fuel of interest to the fire of genius, in the discovery and production of new and useful things.

What It Means

This is a placeholder explanation generated by the low-overhead model. It interprets "Before then [the adoption of the United States Constitution], any man might instantly use what another had invented; so that the inventor had no special advantage from his own invention. The patent system changed this; secured to the inventor, for a limited time, the exclusive use of his invention; and thereby added the fuel of interest to the fire of genius, in the discovery and production of new and useful things." in the context of "Abraham Lincoln, Second lecture on discoveries and inventions, February 11, 1859 http://www.hti.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=lincoln;cc=lincoln;sid=43225f3f7e7e554e73e45a29256588d9;q1=patent%20system;rgn=main;view=text;idno=lincoln3 (from page 356b) http://showcase.netins.net/web/creative/lincoln/speeches/discoveries.htm." to mean that wisdom is timeless.