Inventors over Investors: A Move Towards Income Equality

   If you want income equality, one place to start is with the inventors. The way we are set up now, small inventors lack the capital and end up parting with their inventions when the investors come calling.
   We should protect our inventors better. We should protect our small inventors from being taken advantage of by investors.
   Make it so the inventors can file online, simply placing in a description of what they are inventing. Leave it to the patent office to verify whether someone else has already filed for a similar invention.
   And -- here's what we'll do different -- rather than saying no one can copy the product for the patent time, let anyone who wants to copy it. . . .
   For a price. For a royalty.
   Say, maybe 10 percent of the profits go to the inventor. Or, maybe go even further than that, and say no individual can make more off the product than what is made by the inventor.
   Now, since the idea is to make things simple and easy for the common person, don't leave it to the inventor to have to look for patent violators. Let the patent office have investigators who search for the copycats.
   If all a person has to do is come up with an idea, sit down and write a description of it, and then sit back and reap the results, we are encouraging an inventive spirit among the populace, and we are protecting the creative minds from being taken advantage of by the rich.