If corporations were so confident of their ability to keep research private, they wouldn't apply for patents. However, I suspect most inventions are either of little practical interest, or would soon be rediscovered by somebody else. How long would it have taken before somebody else thought of 1-click buying, for example?

I was advised never to read patents when inventing something. What's so useful about a system that's supposed to help people innovate when it's so questionable to use that lawyers are advising against it?

Lawyers advise against it because damages go way up if the patent owner can show you knew about the infringing patent. A very perverse outcome.

So doesn't that ultimately sabotage the idea that it brings information to the masses faster, if no one can act upon it?