A way to break loose from the present expensive patent-and-sue system of idea territory control

To get around the problem of patents and lawsuits effectively strangling new creative technological ideas for new American products, instead of the patent-and-sue system we now have for combat between individuals and companies, how about making it like the interstate highway system, a governmental and unbiased system for rewarding originators of the ideas and products based on those ideas, so that all technological patentable ideas are freely useful by all Americans in their products.

The compensation to the originators - and which could be secondary inventors too, anyone independently coming up with an idea even if already someone else had previously done that somewhere - according to a share of the amount of application of the idea in American technology products.

It would be paid for by a general tax as a fraction of the sale price of all technology products, without regard to which technological ideas or patents were involved in their creation and manufacture.

This is justified because probably all but the latest bit of an idea for technological innovation, is actually built on all the technological, scientific, engineering ideas developed and made available throughout civilization's growth, probably going back to the Greek scholars and even to the stone hatchet or even the invention of tamed fire for cooking.

The benefit of such a system is expected to be the unfettering of idea makers and manufacturers and technological product developers, so they can rapidly proceed with the implementation of their products and ideas for products. No need for a massive expensive legal department to root in the patent stuff to find which ideas can be pursued in a new product, which is something important for the backyard lone inventor, especially.

For example, let's say that Apple comes up with a new patentable idea. The idea is disclosed in the patent and registered with the patent office. From then on, everybody can freely use that idea in their inventions and products. Apple would get compensated for their invention by an appropriate portion of the taxes collected during the sale of technological products.

This would enable rapid building upon new ideas of others; more importantly, it would enable creation and development of new ideas and innovative products, without the hassle of wondering if someone else had thought of parts of it before, and would act to block the new product. It would also stop the technology-strangling business practice of patenting some key part of a technology, with no intent of using it in a product, but simply to prevent it from being used by a rival business; thus, more kinds of products would become available to the customers, expanding the functionality of the nation.

Opponents to this concept, I fantasize, would be those who derive fame&fortune off of the existing patent-and-sue system; those who consider their patent base as a means of control rather than just financial gain; those who would find it disturbing because it is not the way they are familiar with doing things or thinking about things; and the conservative political group who want less governmental influence and fewer taxes; this makes sense insofar as the risk of some political group getting itself into office who are in it for power and control by a mere few Americans, for their own exclusive benefit. Liberal politicals would question how could privateering such a system be made unbiased and unrestrictive by whoever was controlling it all. Then the costs of paying for it out of detailed tracking of which patent, which idea and in which proportion of each new product, would be overwhelmingly costly and time consuming, almost as bad as the present system and probably even more expensive. So it seems best to me to have it as stated above, paid for by a general tax on all technological based products, from toothpaste to jet aircraft. Even agricultural products depend a lot of technology for their products, such as tractors and fertilizers.

Such a system would be of great benefit in teh upcoming expansion of civilization into nearby space. Although much of teh technology being utilized by upcoming corporations, such as launch vehicle technology, was developed by NASA and therefore paid by American taxes and therefore free to use, newer space access & utilization technologies could be hamstrung by trickery use of the patent-and-sue system by those who patent some key part of a new upcoming technology, with no intent tu use it for goods or services, but merely to prevent rival ways of accomplishing needed things, from being utilized. Much of the space industries are solely based on gaining profit and have little intrinsic interest in the unbiased expansion of civilization into the resources of nearby space, and thus are likely to prevent American best approaches to space, if that is the way they gain most power and wealth.

This proposed system would also wipe out purpose from the often abusive corporate practice of the unrighteous application of the so-called "employment agreement" ceding all ideas by the prospective employee in the future to the employer, regardless of the employer having any intent to utilize the ideas of the employees. This has been blocking the nation's utilization of the vast majority of technologically-interested workers, people who are hands-on in technology and often get new ideas simply by the stimulation thereby of the technological creative part of the mind not involved with the performance of the job for which they are hired to do, which insight can inspire any time of day or night, on or off the job, and most of the time have nothing to do with their fulfillment of their hired-for job accomplishments.

By adopting the system proposed here, technological product advancement could be gotten out of the virtual exclusive control by wealthy companies, and back into the hands of the independent inventors and developers, including small businesses and backyard inventors, where currently most ideas have to die in the present expensive patent-and-sue system of idea control. All would ultimately benefit, from the huge wealthy corporations to the backyard lone innovators, insofar as contributing to the technological capability of the nation.

(Nonetheless I expect this concept to be deep-sixed, because "it is not how we do things, and we are the ones in control here, not you." The place is crawling with bullies.)