The protection of intellectual property rights is an essential element of any plan to protect and encourage American innovation and entrepreneurial spirit. However, ideas that sit unused on paper are of little, if any, benefit to this country. As such, our patent system should acknowledge that in many cases the people that understand how to bring a product to market are as equally important as the people that had the initial burst of insight.
A patent should give an individual a certain "window of opportunity" to bring a product to market, free from competition. When this window expires, the patent-holder should be forced to license the patent to anyone capable of creating a product out of it. The longer a patent laid dormant, the less capital it would raise from licensing.