Aaron Feuerstein intentionally declined to patent Polar fleece, allowing the material to be produced cheaply and widely by many vendors, promoting the material's wide acceptance.[2][3][4]
So the dude who invented the awesome synthetic material "polyarka", that is, polar fleece, didn't patent it, just so everyone could use it.
I also remember how Jonas E. Salk refused the patent for the polio vaccine, also cool.