The biggest problem with the patent system is it discourages people from using patented ideas - the more patented ideas you use in your product (even if you ind

The biggest problem with the patent system is it discourages people from using patented ideas - the more patented ideas you use in your product (even if you independently discover them), the more you pay. A good patent system would have the following properties: * Investment and risk taking in R&D and sharing the results is rewarded above the costs of that R&D, so there is no disincentive to share with competitors. * There is no disincentive to using and building on ideas shared by others. I think the best system is a 'tax'-like system - alongside the existing patent system, businesses can elect to pay 10% of their revenues to a pool for immunity from all patents. Businesses using / reselling patented manufactured products are still liable even if the manufacturer pays the 10%, unless they also pay the 10%. Patent filers tell the pool the actual costs of R&D (and may be audited to prove it). The pool is distributed based to patent filers based on R&D costs (and maybe a per-industry factor for risk) - it might be better to somehow collect some rough metric of value of the each patent to their business from patent users, although there are risks of the system being gamed then. This system would achieve the desired properties at 10% of all industry-wide research being spent on R&D - it would favour not disclosing R&D worth more than 10%, and if less than 10% was spent, it would be stacked in favour of companies doing R&D.