This is not a good trend

You've forgotten the fourth - "Design Patent" - which confusingly is actually a variant of trademark!

Where you protect the appearance of your product - competitors can make stuff which does the same thing, but they can't make it look the same.

(NB - the word "patent" comes from "letters patent", which is why it doesn't (in law) mean what most people assume it means.)

Cheers,
Wol