Are patents worth anything?

[globi5]

I've been working in R&D for several years (mostly MEMS and small electromechanical products) and noticed that it has generally never been considered to license any IP from anyone - unless a working product was already available and then we would purchase the product anyway (the fact whether it had any IP or not didn't matter in this case).
Also when we realized that we might infringe a patent we would always find a way to work around it or find an alternative solution. In addition when competitors would infringe on some of our patents we didn't go after them because it was considered too costly and time consuming.

I realize that patent lawyers make a considerable amount of money with patents, but what about inventors? Are there any inventors profiting from their patents? Are there any inventors or engineers that came up with a neat idea and some corporation actually licensed it?
Or is your corporation paying some small guy licensing fees for his idea?

 

[Yashu]

There have been more patents granted from 2003 to 2005 than the total patents granted from patent #1 to 2003.

The patent system has become a complete inutile joke. The reviewers are utterly clueless and can't comprehend the term 'novel',.. never mind the invention.

What's with the recent 'pay every 4 years of lose your patent' bullsh**.

I think it's obvious what the patent system has become.

 

[SomptingGuy]

Patents are worth £1750 where I work - there's an incentive scheme in place. It's £250 on registration, £1500 when granted.

 

[globi5]

^ Ha ha - good point.