You create something patent-able. Knowing you will not see any money for 17 years you sell your patent to someone for a lump sum. You get your cash for making for thing, they get their payday after a 17 year wait. End result (which jump to my mind) is patents are turned into financial products managed by companies that "don't actually make anything" enforcing their terms as it will increase profits at the end of the investment period.
Just wondering how that would be any different to what we have now apart from the people creating the "inventions" patents are tied to probably getting a worse deal then they are now as there is a 17 year wait for "payday".
EDIT: Also Who would manage the escrow accounts? Would there be fee's to pay? Any interest earned? If so who pays / receives those? Will they be payable at/receivable at the end of the term or throughout. What if if the patent is dismissed? Do the interest/fee's get passed back to those who paid the licensing fees? What about appeals? And what about inflation?
First thought it sounds like a nice idea, refund everyone if a bad patent gets though, but I can see it just hurting the inventors more then patent trolls.
Perhaps a variation on "Petition to Make Special" ?? We used this to expedite a patent application. The premise is that you need a patent in order to secure financing to build the product. And it was factored into our Series A and B. Downside, is that if you don't use it, you lose it. Am lucky that none of my patents have been used by Trolls.
> people creating the "inventions" patents are tied to probably getting a worse deal then they are now as there is a 17 year wait for "payday".
I wonder how many pure inventors there are versus makers? We made a product. I was a co-founder that assigned my inventions to the company.
When I first got into this, I read that the Government incentive behind patents is to increase US commerce. So, the question is: do Trolls increase or decrease US commerce? (Or any other nation state, for that matter).
Unfortunately, litigation is a part of US commerce. Plus, laws are made by lawyers. So, the modest proposal was somewhat cynical. Restated: how to offer up an opportunity for lawyers to sue trolls? Hopefully, while making it easier for small startups to make stuff.
Where the _best_ of these will take fifty per cent as a fee?
Sounds a great deal.
I think what'd you'd actually see is specialist patent funding actuaries and patent evaluators making an interest rate bid dependent on the actual patent and inventor in question, much the way insurance industry works. The direct competition would be business loans, and maybe that'd be essentially what they were - secured business loans.
Lets say the USPTO uses Deep Learning to discover prior art and/or result disputes. A shorter time frame may be less risky for the inventor. After the escrow is released, there is no recourse for the licensee.