From time to time critics of the old Bell System gripe that the company was "guaranted profits" by the regulators and as such, owed something back to the community.
Aside from the fact that regulation actually limited profits, AT&T was indeed required to give things back. One of which was the rights to its invention of the transistor, which were available free of charge. (Per Ziff-Davis history).
I had always wondered why AT&T never seemed to make any money from the invention of the transistor.
I presume other Bell Labs patents were also available free; indeed, I never knew of AT&T making money from licensing its many inventions. It appears patents were more for freedom of use than profit. IBM adopted a similar policy in the 1950s. Both did so from anti-trust settlements.