There are no patents on tapers, and it is common among cane rod builders to share tapers, or to actually take a series of measurements like every two inches along the length of the rod. There is an index of those I recall at the BB for cane rodmakers, sorry I can't remember the url, I'm sure someone can add it. As far as pricing is concerned, rod making as an art falls into any art pricing. An item, rod, painting etc is worth exactly what you can get for it. When you put cane rod building into a manufacturing business (as it once was in this country) you may indeed have lovely rods, but no longer 'art', as in the Art of Rod Building.