And much like nukes, having them in the first place was a backward idea.

No. Patents are required for certain kinds of development. Places where there are extremely high costs of R&D, and easy reverse engineering. Take pharmaceuticals. It costs several hundred million dollars for the studies to prove that the drug works, and more for the research. Furthermore, it is easy to reverse engineer drugs (the compounds are printed on the package!).

This means that there is little incentive to develop a drug unless you can guarantee exclusivity for a period (everyone else can always undercut you because they don't have the R&D costs).