Re: 3D printing is in this boat
I think the observed result here is that patents allowed the technology to be initially developed and monetised and now , many years later, are holding back new development.... those 2 things together suggest not that patents are bad, but maybe they are being applied for too long a term.
After all, the world used to be 'slower', if it takes 5-10 years to take an invention to market and there's only a local market to monetise, it used to make sense to have patents last longer. Now that you can get production scaled up quickly and sell a product worldwide, maybe the patent period should be shortened?
If it's a case of highly complex interconnecting patents where an original discovery many years ago was a key foundation for something that could only be monetised many years later, maybe start the clock from 'first commercial product' rather than from 'patent was filed'.