Comment by pillock

Of course you're right, but surely there's a balance to be found between delaying the launch of this product vs. maximizing profits. If the company involved is more interested in money they'll tend to err towards delaying release, if they're more interested in the impact of their product they'll tend to release sooner. Clearly, at a societal level, we'd prefer to have this product sooner, so we have to constantly question the leverage that patents afford large corporations and question their methods and motives.