https://www.tomshardware.com/news/amd-intel-x86-cpu,7285.html

That's from when the deal was going to expire in 2009.

>x86
That's not the only CPU architecture

And it might actually fuck us in the long run to keep using it

Okay, but if you want a desktop, or laptop computer that's what you're getting.

Yes, RISC was better.

But it died.

Do you think standard oil was the only oil company?

See I think the main issue is that unlike a physical monopoly, in which one company can set rates due to lack of feasibility wrt competition, software monopolies are a result of regulation in the first place

Hell, pharmaceutical monopolies are primarily as well

Software monopolies are a result of regulation... what regulation?

Intellectual property law

Patten law?

The fact that you can own an idea (basically indefinitely) necessarily places one company "in charge" of a good chunk of their potential competition, if not all of it outright

Patents can only be maintained for 20 years.

What's worse, many times said company did not actually come up with the idea

Or no, 50 years?

There's more to IP than patents, and IP law is an ever-expanding section of the legal system

No 20 years.

No patens are pretty well settled.

I think you're talking about copyright law.

Original artwork?

I'm just going to assume that's what you mean, and yes it's totally fucked up. Disney fucked that up for everyone, along with a cartel of other studios and destroying the public domain.

Patents got extended from their original timespan as well actually, it just happened earlier

And patent law has continued to have changes as recently as 2013, just not all to length of the patent

`For applications filed on or after June 8, 1995, utility and plant patents are granted for a term which begins with the date of the grant and usually ends 20 years from the date you first applied for the patent subject to the payment of appropriate maintenance fees for a utility patent. There are no maintenance fees for plant patents . Design patents last 15 years from the date you are granted the patent. No maintenance fees are required for design patents.

Note: Patents in force on June 8, 1995 and patents issued thereafter on applications filed prior to June 8, 1995 automatically have a term that is the greater of the twenty year term discussed above or seventeen years from the patent grant.`

https://www.uspto.gov/help/patent-help#1904

You are thinking of Trademarks (which never expire) and copyright law.

Software can't be patented.

Because it's not a thing.

It's a thing that does something.

>patent law started in 1995
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patent_Act_of_1836

No it didn't.

The link to posted is the patent act of 1836, so not sure where you're getting that number from.

Your quoted text

From the uspatent office?

Talking about the changed that happened in 1995?

Look the purpose of patents and copyright is to protect the person who made the thing so they can make money off of the thing.

If I spent hundreds of millions of dollars on development of a new drug (to use your example) want to see a return on my investment.

And not have a generic version I have to compete with out the gate.

The value they mention in the link is not the original value, which was 14 years
Further, you don't need a 20 year monopoly to turn a profit