Un-patents

  I wrote about this a long time ago but there was little if any uptake.
  Let's try again.
  Suppose someone invents something but doesn't want a patent, but wants to prevent anyone else from getting a patent.
  More than ever, we need a pro bono legal function that's funded as a charity that patents these items, makes a public record of who the inventor is, for kudos purposes only, and thereby prevents a huge company from patenting it.
  I understand that a new patent "reform" will become law soon that changes things from first-to-invent to first-to-patent. So there's some urgency to putting this system in place.