I think things that if universities had "trade secrets," that would be bad indeed (and a type of trade secret was still part of the culture when I did my PhD—people would purposefully not make their papers reproducible to keep an edge); but patents don't seem like a problem as much.
Maybe the German system (that other Northern European also have) where universities don't apply for patents, but faculty are allowed to do so; is a best-of-both-worlds situation.
Should this mean that universities should not file patents for their discoveries?
That's a good question.
I think things that if universities had "trade secrets," that would be bad indeed (and a type of trade secret was still part of the culture when I did my PhD—people would purposefully not make their papers reproducible to keep an edge); but patents don't seem like a problem as much.
Maybe the German system (that other Northern European also have) where universities don't apply for patents, but faculty are allowed to do so; is a best-of-both-worlds situation.