I am in no way supportive of monopolies though taking "the need to compete" out of the equation and having steady flow of money that won't be cut off if "someone beats you to market" was pretty revolutionary. Consider Bell Labs, staffed with real "nerds" that never had to prostitute themselves or to pitch an idea on the merits of making money -- they simply did stuff that was fun, in ther nerdy way. Because of this we have wireless communication, transistors, digital cameras sensors, c, and many others.

(There were a lot of negatives due to this AT&T monopoly but we are talking about nerds here and having to socialize your own worth/value. It's a shitty game that real nerds aren't necessary interested in playing)