Earlier quoted context omitted.
J. Presper Eckert (the Eckert in "Eckert & Mauchly") in his oral history interview [1], p.46f: > "Originally we called ENIAC the "MANIAC" when it didn't work right. And later they borrowed that name for some other actual machine. But if you worked for von Neumann on the MANIAC, then if you invented something it belonged to you. Well, on some relatively short notice, like it might have been a week, or a month, or some…
For the humanity, the publication of the von Neumann report was certainly a very positive thing because it launched a large number of research projects with the purpose of building electronic computers, both in USA and in many other countries. There is absolutely no doubt that without this publication and with a patent claiming the design of a computer with stored program, the evolution of the computers would have be…
Even if the transistors have been patented, the patents have been licensed to anyone for negligible fees or even for free (e.g. for hearing aids).
If the essential transistor patents had been used like worthless patents are used today in preventing competition, the history of the computer and electronics industries would have been very different, with progress delayed by decades.
So both the publication of the von Neumann report and the generous handling of the transistor patents have been very influential in shaping the word of today, while many inventions where the inventors clinged to the patents have been either doomed or they began to be used only after the patents have expired, more than 20 years later.