Intellectual property only encourages research and development in profitable sectors. I don't see why we have to wait and see if markets will research something if deemed profitable enough, when we could democratically decide what research gets funded, and fund it through public institutions. Most research already takes place in public institutions, even in capitalism, only the final step is done by companies which then patent the final step once 99% of the work is done, and profit immensely from it. Also, the researchers themselves don't even get the IP, it goes to the company they work for.

It's so untenable to me.