> if you patent something and don’t act on it in X years then it enters the public domain. If you discontinue the thing that relies on the patent then it enters the public domain. And so on.<p>people have an extremely limited view of patents to suggest this.<p>so you're working a 9-5, spent all of your savings on getting a patent because you did perceive something everyone else neglected, and people on the internet are like "go form a startup and raise capital, or else"! that's not what they say, but they don't think about what they say. they imagine a person with a toolkit in a garage or writing software and that's it, and then imagine creating and monetizing that one thing is the best use of their time, otherwise the idea shouldn't have been contributed to society at all. funny, who living in an economic center and has a garage anyway?<p>until we can have a real discussion on patenting and patent holders, as well as the incentives in making the patent claims broader and more generic than the inventor really had in mind, this conversation will go nowhere.