"John" wrote:

These companies should be made to publish their older information to
the web so that it would be accessible but instead their taking their
technologies to their graves.

Ah ha! Exactly!

To keep manufacturing secrets from going to the grave the Lord created
patents. The inventor has to tell all to get protection. The inventor
would get no protection if the government [that's us] could get away
with it and patents don't exist in communist countries.

It is a myth that the patent system is there to protect the noble
inventor from the cruel world. There would be no secret syrup for making
Coke
if it had been patented.