The line between the government and the oligarchs is pretty blurry: I'm not sure if distinct names are warranted.
How do patents protect against oligarchy?
For example, I know someone who owns a patent on blue lasers reading data from a storage medium. She has been quite calm about it and lets mega corporations use the method for not a lot of money. Blu-ray tech can't be controlled by a single company because it has to be licensed through this random individual.
That's a nice example, but not being able to patent the technology would also ensure the tech can't be controlled.
I suspect the number of level-headed individuals who control patents is far outweighed by the corporate patent holders who care only about extracting money from them, societal considerations be damned.
There are good and bad ideas around that. Once most manufacturing started to be shipped to countries like China that ignore patent laws, it became kind of silly to actually have them. I would support abolishing patents if we didn't have a technology industry that is more powerful than the government that is supposed to regulate it. Patents are absurdly abused, but there are still cases where they are necessary to protect from the oligarchy