We have to realize that every time some patent is awarded, someone has just robbed the collective human knowledge pool, some patent office has just made money off selling something it doesn't own by taking it away from anyone else who could have come up with it now, or in the future.
Kickstarter's model is the way to go. An idea is only worth so much, you ask what you want to be paid and make it if it matches your price. But given how deeply ingrained the inflated value of an idea and the repeatability of charging for it is in our being, a lot of us think 'But, but he deserves the patent! I mean he was the first one to think about such a complex system.'
How to have a sustainable business model you ask? Charge for your idea upfront and do your repeat business on manufacturing, maintenance, innovation and service. This model inherently tends to promote innovation and forces competition in terms of manufacturing, pushing for the improved and more efficient ways of doing anything. This is how humanity collectively progresses much faster than what we see right now.
Even the smartest people get stuck at the thought of software patents not making any sense but somehow non-software patents seeming fine. The problem is in the idea that someone can be arbitrarily given the right to something that someone else can come up with freely completely independently.