Patents on ideas that are only worth $50k to their owners in terms of future revenue are part of the problem too. If your idea is worth $1M, then $250K is easy to get from investors, banks, etc. It could also serve to reverse the order of operations, instead of speculatively filing every idea, novel or not, you could put your idea into practice and if it is evident the idea will be worth it, then the patent could be filed. If another were to file the patent, you could claim prior art. An extension to the amount of time after disclosure it could be filed might also be worth considering. However, this wasn't meant to be an extended exchange, merely a provocative thought.
