That's the model of industrial labs. You get a salary. IP is owned by the company. Wouldn't it be awesome if there was some institution (a University is a perfect example), which similarly pays its researchers a salary (sure, it should match the private sector salaries) and the resulting IP is public ___domain.

Heck, it would promote the private sector to devote more resources to research ... if the private sector made a discovery, they could patent it and get exclusivity. If a University did it, it belongs to everyone.