> IMHO, if a patent application is submitted, it should be required that the patent holder or a licensee releases a matching product to the market in at least f

> IMHO, if a patent application is submitted, it should be required that the patent holder or a licensee releases a matching product to the market in at least five years This would complete the transition from having patents as a tool available to independent inventors, to being purely for protection of established players. Even today, it's at least theoretically possible for someone to come up with, say, an idea for a new practical high-intensity EUV source, and to get reasonable compensation for developing that idea by licensing it to established industry players. With your proposal, if it would take a non-player more than five years to commercialize an idea (which is true of the vast majority of non-trivial inventions), all the establishment has to do is wait them out and then use the idea license-free in 5 years, instead of 21. It's perfectly reasonable to disagree with many aspects of the patent system, and I certainly personally believe that eliminating it entirely might be beneficial, but I suspect your proposal would act contrary to your goals.