Any flat increase would just make it less likely that the big guys will have competition in their "most patents filed" competition.
Also, given we just switch from first-invented to first-filed, it is particularly onerous for those garage-based small inventors as a big corp can easily justify the cost.
What might make more sense is to tax intellectual property. We tax physical property with much less value than a "successful" software patent (ahem, Eolas?), why not tax the non-physical property as well? If you make it progressive based on the number of patents owned/controlled, it will also limit the usability of maintaining warchests of patents for controlling markets.
Perfect. Tax them heavier as they age. That way the people trying to create usable products are barely hurt, but by the last few years it costs a lot to hold on to. And you can release your patent to the public domain to release it. That's more likely to hit trolls than innovators.
Also, given we just switch from first-invented to first-filed, it is particularly onerous for those garage-based small inventors as a big corp can easily justify the cost.
What might make more sense is to tax intellectual property. We tax physical property with much less value than a "successful" software patent (ahem, Eolas?), why not tax the non-physical property as well? If you make it progressive based on the number of patents owned/controlled, it will also limit the usability of maintaining warchests of patents for controlling markets.