I remember back when they first started getting popular I was at a conference and told a marketing person that we should make one instead of giving folks a long url. The marketing person said "I don't know if we have the budget to register one."
I used to think that this was because the marketing person didn't know how they worked, but now I know that they thought it worked like UPCs.
Shout out to Masahiro Hara for not asserting his patent rights so this incredibly useful tool could be free.