Fair enough, I've got a couple of questions for you though.

First, and perhaps most importantly, how did you arrive at a cost for filing a patent? I ask because there is a lot of mis-information out there spread mostly by patent attorneys that try to make this case. The actual fees for filing a patent are not all that high, however attorney fees are astronomical by comparison. Also did you know there are people who are registered patent agents (not attorneys) who can help you file a patent at a much lower cost? I guess the real question is how deeply have you investigated patents with available online resources before deciding they were not worth pursuing?

I've got just over a dozen patents issued to me, they range from the quite simple (protecting a laptop screen from onlookers using lcd glasses) to fairly complex (protecting executable code with bi-directional authentication). I've also been the advisor to a number of startups which have filed for and received patents. The most expensive cost was probably the bi-directional authentication one because it got the department of state involved (long story) but the first one was quite inexpensive, about $15K from deposition to issuance. Part of the expense can come from trying to patent something really broad (like "breathing air") which gets a lot of 'office actions' from the patent office for prior work and restatement of claims. That burns a lot of attorney hours and that is a lot of cost. For things that are narrowly claimed and there is little to no prior art in the patent database, they are very quick to patent and thus very cheap.

Now a patent attorney will advise you to "get as broad coverage as possible" to maximize the "value" of the patent. Which is good, but somewhat self serving advice. They will start with something really broad and the repeated office actions will pare it down into something much less broad, but arguably "as broad as possible." Also "as expensive as possible."

Not a lot of people who argue for or against the patent system have been through it, I've been through it as an inventor, an acquirer (due diligence), and expert witness (defender) of various patents. That experience has helped me get to the point where I've separated my opinions about patents and patent administration into two camps. The latter is problems with how they are vetted, prosecuted and defended, the former is about the concept of protecting the person who did the work from exploitation.

Given changes in the JOBS act there was some additions more cost effective ways to file patents that made it easier for folks in your position to file them. There are also systems like provisional patents, where you put down that you're going to file them in a durable way, so that if you go talk to BigCorp and tell them what you are doing, and they "steal" your idea and implement it, you can "steal it back" by asserting your patent rights to it.

I guess my point is that it is a lot more complex than "good" or "bad" and the information that is readily available may not always come from a disinterested source.

Actually, it would be much more expensive than that if you end up having to defend you patent in court http://www.cnet.com/news/how-much-is-that-patent-lawsuit-goi...