That's not how open source works. The original design moves along, but others can "fork" designs off the original and e eryone can see what the others are doing. You can see what people are making progress in other areas and see potential paths forward you couldn't see before.
Why worry about patents? Open source it... that's exactly what Randall Carlson and others are doing with the vagra "thunderstorm generator."
Randall Carlson just reports about it, it was invented by Malcolm Bendall.
https://www.strikefoundation.earth/
That's not how open source works. The original design moves along, but others can "fork" designs off the original and e eryone can see what the others are doing. You can see what people are making progress in other areas and see potential paths forward you couldn't see before.