This is a very interesting idea, but I think it would be virtually unlegislateable with patents because, among other reasons, you can (and people do) patent thi

This is a very interesting idea, but I think it would be virtually unlegislateable with patents because, among other reasons, you can (and people do) patent things that do not have a consistent unit you charge for (and that don't even go into the final product). For a cheap example, take two pharmaceutical compounds, one that works better in 1mg doses and another that works better on 100mg doses. Should the second be a hundred times as expensive as the first or not? Or suppose someone devises a new way of manufacturing battery cells that are exactly equal to current batteries except the process is a lot cheaper. The fee would apply one-time to the company that used this patented process or would it apply to all products built with this process? And how would, say, the fees of a 9volt and an AAA battery be balanced? So I guess the patent system is too broad for its own good.