I don't agree. I think that while it can be difficult to defend every instance of a patent or a particular implementation of patent law, this doesn't mean that every patent is bad or that the concept of patents is bad and needs to be outright abandoned which is what the OP was discussing.
America's patent system may not be perfect but this doesn't mean it's outright unproductive. This holds especially true when evaluated based on raw innovation. America's tech sector speaks for itself but is far from unique, America's pharmaceutical industry also comes to mind. Although widely criticized, and rightly so, the American industry produces nearly a third of the world's new molecular entities.
America's patent system may not be perfect but this doesn't mean it's outright unproductive. This holds especially true when evaluated based on raw innovation. America's tech sector speaks for itself but is far from unique, America's pharmaceutical industry also comes to mind. Although widely criticized, and rightly so, the American industry produces nearly a third of the world's new molecular entities.