I like the spirit of this but not the implementation. Currently, if you pay 10k or whatever, you get at a patent for ~20 years. If your idea is valuable, other

I like the spirit of this but not the implementation. Currently, if you pay 10k or whatever, you get at a patent for ~20 years. If your idea is valuable, others will (hopefully) be willing to pay royalties. If not, you'll be discouraged from filing fluff patents in the future. If fees start low and escalate every year, there's much more of a game theory aspect. On the inventor side, you have an incentive to apply for 10 silly patents and play the lottery on each for a year instead of filing for 1 good patent that is actually valuable. On the other side, someone considering paying to use a patent might think "Gee, if we make a deal now, we have to pay royalties, but if we wait a year, then there's a good chance Joe Patentholder will not be able to pay the required fees, and then we can use his idea for free!" This doesn't mean Joe's idea is not valuable, but the incentive to wait a few months makes a patent's value too unpredicatable. Also, what if you're negotiating with someone after 2 years and 11 months, and they decide to stall for a month to apply negotiating pressure?