Assignment of IP to the employer is presumably a clause in just about every employment contract any founder ever imposes on new recruits to their startup - on pain of them leaving and trying to hold the startup hostage over their contributions. What you're suggesting, I fear, is just too blunt. What about a bad faith doctrine, forbidding NPEs (non practising entities, aka trolls) from enforcing a patent - only those who exploit their IP in-house can enforce their monopoly against others? Or, alternatively, linking one supposed purpose of patent protection - disclosure of ideas to the world (I gather that incentivisation to innovate is another) - to the ability to sue. So for example, only patents that are cited as prior art in future applications can be enforced against third parties. Evidently, making the 'obviousness' and inventive step blocks to patent granting more potent should be the first step considered. Who loses, exactly, by making patents harder to get? Can't IP advocates accept that this would make creators strive to be more creative or innovative?