I am not disagreeing with your general dislike of corps. However, who owns what depends upon jurisdiction. Creation or expression is owned by the individual regardless of who publishes or patents. Both of those features give you standing in court. But, if someone can walk in and show evidence (e.g., correspondence, notes, etc) that they were first, you lose. Ca is very protective about this sort of thing. Other states further east, not so much. It depends. That is why any sort of deal involving a communist government is so tricky -- they do not recognize intellectual ownership a'tall. Which is how the CCP justifies stealing all the tech from any company dumb enough to operate there (alternatively, any company whose execs are willing to take a bribe -- back to corps again).