alt Hacker NewsGermany didn't have patent laws in the 1800s. Their economy rapidly industrialized and boomed.
I don't believe on balance that patents would be a net improvement. Are companies really going to stop making things better if they couldn't patent it?
Note that Tesla open sources its patents.
The benefit of patents is that you have to make your patent public. After the patent runs out anybody can reproduce what you patented exactly like your did.
The problem, of course, is that many companies see patents as a way to rent-seek. Establish enough patents in your niche and now nobody can compete with you. This is particularly a problem in the modern world where technological advancements have accelerated so much that a 20 year long patent is an eternity. An entire industry can just die off in that time.