I presume you mean invention? If so:
If I recall correctly from those dreadful intellectual property classes, the patent system was made to promote invention, as it protects the ones putting effort/money into inventing something. So either you got a profound knowledge of intellectual property matters, then I'd like to know how exactly they slow inventions. Amd what do you propose as an alternative system?
Or, you're just making a bold statement about a field you really have no authority in, which I get so tired of on forums.
First of all it wasn't invented. It was discovered. An important nuance in intellectual property rights I imagine (and again I don't know). Isn't there something in intellectual property rights you can't patent something available to all/ present in nature or something along those lines (penicillin is produced by a mold). And aside that I think penecillin was already a 'state of the art' case even when it was discovered arguably.
And secondly. On May 25, 1948, Andrew J Moyer was granted a patent for a method of the mass production of penicillin (
source) which flaws the point you try to make I think.
I don't mean to come down on you Legion, I appreciate input and debate, which goes unsaid. This post goes for a lot of threads/posts om EF. I guess what I wanted to point out is that each time I start reading an interesting thread (which I do try here because the community in general acts more mature then on 99% of the other forums I want to visit) there are people making statements which are simply untrue, of what I know, and this pollutes a lot of debates here in my opinion. Which leaves me disappointed and losing interest.