I have all sorts of relatively simple ideas that I am not possibly in a position to bring to market. I rather like the idea of patenting loads of them, and then approaching companies with the ideas saying something like “I had this idea in principle, here’s the patent - now I’ve given you the idea you make it and I’ll take a tiny cut of the profits”. A rather different model to a patent troll, as it wouldn’t be about trying to sue companies who didn’t know they developed my idea - the point would be to make some money from my ideas, and even more importantly to see them in production.
My dad and an aunt both have quite a few patents and so do some of my friends (although the latter are mostly through companies) so I am familiar with the general process being long, requiring lawyers, trawling through patent archives, and other stuff. I know it costs thousands each time. Not within my budget for the amount of patents I wish to file.
How much of that technically speaking can you just not bother doing? I know some guy in Australia patented the wheel, but then again if memory serves he was a patent lawyer trying to prove a point. And of course there’s all those potential motion schemes that are patented, but were they done through lawyers?
I recently quit my job so have some free time for a bit as well.
Patenting an invention is fairly simple to do - though you have to pay the patent attorney and the various fees. Provisional patents cost less but do have to be converted into full applications evetually. You would also have to repeat the patenting process in numerous foreign countries - more money. The European Patent Office is notoriously slow; sometimes the patent has almost run out before they grant it. The US Patent Office has a reputation for granting overly broad patent claims that are subsequently overturned.
The real hard work comes in turning a patented idea into a commercial proposition; making ‘for a dime something any damn’ fool can make for a dollar’. Unless you are working in a genuinely innovative area your idea will just be an variation on an existing invention - and why would they pay you off just for calling attention to the old ideas?
In theory, you can. In practice, well, sometimes, but it’s very difficult.
Your business model has a few flaws in it. First of all, unless your spare bedroom bears an uncanny resemblance to Scrooge McDuck’s vault, you aren’t going to be able to afford to file “loads” of patents (which the OP seems to realize). Your typical home inventor can probably afford to file a patent or two, more if they are spread out over many years, but they aren’t cheap.
Second, you’ve got your patent. Now what? Great ideas are a dime a dozen. How do you prove to a company that your idea is guaranteed to be profitable? There are plenty of great ideas that haven’t translated into market success. It’s a lot more difficult than just approaching a company and saying hey, I’ve got this great whiz-bang patent, you go do something with it and give me a small cut. Most companies are just going to say yeah, thanks, but no thanks.
The third problem you run into is that a patent by itself is almost worthless. There are no automatic protections and there are no patent police. Some company can take your idea and mass produce it and make a huge profit on it without bothering to even tell you about it. When you find out about it, you have to take the necessary legal steps yourself, on your own nickel. If a simple cease and desist letter doesn’t do it, you can end up in court, and big companies often know that they can take the tactic of basically lawyering you to death if you are a little guy. They can afford to have things tied up in court for years, filing motion after motion. The little guy at home often gets overwhelmed by the legal fees, and having no income from the product since it is tied up in court. Meanwhile, the company files a new patent that is just a minor variation on yours. Is it close enough to yours that you can sue them for it and stop them? Well, there’s more court stuff you need to do and more legal fees.
There are a lot of folks saying the current patent system needs overhauled because it doesn’t offer much realistic protection for little guys. That said, sometimes the little guy does win, and it’s not impossible to patent something and make a profit off of it. It’s just a heck of a lot more difficult than most people think it is.
And they will probably offer you a small sum to settle - and you’d do well to take it, because it’s probably the most you’re going to end up with at the end of the litigation.