What would you think about having to license a patent to build a car? What if there were the equivalent of MPEGLA for cars that could prevent you from competing with other legally licensed car manufacturers? What if the licensing authority threatened to sue anyone who distributed, sold or bought your car?

It did happen. You might enjoy learning about Henry Ford's patent struggle against the ALAM (Association of Licensed Automobile Manufacturers.) They possessed an essential patent to automobiles and wielded it as a weapon against anyone who tried to compete.

References:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_B._Selden http://www.bpmlegal.com/wselden.html http://www.cojoweb.com/us-patent-2.html http://www.s363.com/selden/zapped.html http://inventors.about.com/library/weekly/aacarsseldona.htm

"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it" -- Santayana