I see how that would help the government, but not how it would help the patients.

Opening the proprietary information allows patients to take control of their health, and gives more options for doctors to help them, and for groups who might take up the helm of maintaining or removing implants from existing patients. It also allows iteration upon the design, so that it may be improved even if the original company was unable to improve it themselves.

They said the government now owns the patent your responding like they said the patent is now voided and the technology is open to anyone.

Do you think the government is going to sit atop of a giant pile of patents like a fire-breathing dragon protecting its hoard?

That's what private companies currently do, and by relinquishing them to the government, the public has some say in what happens to them.

Probably not but who they chose to license it too might not be in the patients best interest.

I agree, but I think it's better than the alternative of it remaining with some patent troll to never be used in a productive way. If it remains in private hands, we don't get a say in what happens to it. If the government owns it, there's at least a chance that democratic processes can affect what happens to it and standards can be enforced that licensees must meet or adhere to.

There are plenty of NIH patents that are licensed, and while some of the companies they're licensed to make my skin crawl, they're at least being used productively, and not locked away to be used as a cudgel in a legal racket.

> Do you think the government is going to sit atop of a giant pile of patents like a fire-breathing dragon protecting its hoard?

Very likely unless some distribution or maintenance mechanism gets funded.

It already exists: https://www.techtransfer.nih.gov/

More likely they auction it off to the highest bidder.

NIH regularly licenses patents, so that doesn't have to be the case.