Originally posted by EmporerEJ
No, it's not. Exactly the opposite. The purpose of the patent is so OTHERS can build improvements to the design. What YOU said was so the original patent holder can be the only one to "build on it." (Did I mis-understand what you wrote?)

Now, I understand this would be more difficult to do in medicine, but not impossible. There are several examples that come to mind; acetaminophen, Tylenol 3 and any other combination drug coupled with acetaminophen. I'm sure a search would turn up hundreds, if not thousands of others just in that field.
The purpose of a patent is to 'protect' your (or my) invention.

Meaning that unless a license has been granted nobody else can patent anything like the original idea or anything that contains components of the original idea

Regards,

Lee