Especially for lifesaving medical patents. If the drug isn’t being produced, or the price is too high (I don’t know how this would be defined), governments should be empowered to seize the IP and solicit bids to produce the invention. We move heaven and earth to save lives in natural disasters, why do we move so slowly with certain medical conditions?
Unfortunately, this happens all the time, but not for the public good. Research universities use patent portfolios to increase their revenue by licensing inventions to companies that can manufacture the product.
For example in 2014 NYU earned $214M in IP licensing and nationally led the period from 2004-2010.
> Not nobody, just purely for profit rent seekers.
This is not an example of "rent-seeking behavior", which is a technical term with a specific meaning. It's not merely a synonym for "profit-maximizing behavior which I don't like".
> If a company does not make use of a patent they should at least loose their right to it.
Someone can always try and license the rights from them, if they think they can do a better job making money off of them. Problem is, I bet nobody else was interested in licensing it from them at any reasonable price, because they would have the same problem: the market just isn't there, at any price that would make it worth it to produce.