Eleanor certainly didn't invent strip or chain piecing. She's done a nice job of teaching it, and popularizing it. But she can't "own" the technique. She can own the books she's written. She can trademark and copyright her specialty rulers. But you and I are free to show a friend how we did the technique.
When it comes to a shop and teaching a technique -- it gets tricky. Obviously, they want to sell the books and make some profit there. But I personally will not pay for an expensive book, plus the class, and the supplies (sometimes mandated to be purchased at the shop).
I think it gets interesting when people try to copyright a pattern that is very basic -- so simple that you can see by looking at it exactly how to construct it. They may choose to sell a pattern or a tutorial, and they can copyright their pattern or blog or articles in magazines. But legally, they can't copyright the block. Because I am fairly experienced and can draft my own patterns, I very rarely purchase patterns. Recently I have bought patterns occasionally, only to be very frustrated by the poor techniques, inaccurate yardages, and basically poor writing. It's pretty annoying -- shelling out $10 I could have spent on fabric, to get shoddy directions for something simple enough to do improvisationally. I do try to give credit when I use someone else's ideas or basic design, even to say "inspired by __ by __". But I think I'm pretty much done buying patterns and books.