The patent and trademark system needs work, but the baby should not be thrown out with the bathwater.
There's so many kinds and examples of egregious behaviors by patent holders that you have to wonder if we're just better off with starting from scratch and deal with the tradeoff that may come with it.
They are also regulations. You can't opt-out of the patent system.
> You can weigh the benefits or lack thereof and chooses to opt-in or opt-out.
What is your proposed mechanism to opt-out? Do you mean that an inventor can choose not to apply for a patent? If so, that's not an opt-out of the patent system. You are still subject to all other valid patents.
> Regulations are a government-created burden.
Including patent regulations. It seems you support the regulations that you consider "good" and call them incentives.
Environmental and consumer rights regulations are both regulations and incentives in exactly the way patents are. They are enforced by the state and incentivise certain behaviours.
> You can't opt out of a regulation.
True. As stated, you can't opt-out of patent regulations either.
I am not intimately familiar with the example you gave so I shall just take your word for it that it is a flaw in the system.
This baby is only protecting big corps now. Nothing can be done at the moment without violating some "rounded corners" patent. The only reason individuals can get away with it for a while is that it is not worth for patent holders chasing. As soon as they make some money the vultures come down.