Knowing the limits and still fighting them

In Nikola Tesla's experiences with prior patents, he had learned that a patent would be worthless unless he could get the needed capital to carry the project out before the patent period expired, and that the disclosure in a patent would allow others to do so only 17 years after a patent might be granted to him, during which time his invention could languish for lack of funding on his part, because the monolithic financial interests were set against him.