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

Same thing for copyright, if I wright a book, and I don't want someone to just copy it and resell it down the street.

It depends on what the thing is.

20 monopoly on Viagra? Sure, 20 year monopoly on a black rectangle, probably not.

You need 20 years to turn a profit on boner pills?

No but you shouldn't get to make a profit of my design with out at least paying me a cut.

And if I don't want to share my toys so be it.

You can wait.

Why do you own an idea?

It's not an idea it's a design.

Which is an idea

Not the same thing.

Look if I design a new fuel injection system for a car, and I patent it, I should decided who gets to use it.

You decide who gets to use your product

Yes

But you getting to decide people can't reverse engineer your system is owning an idea

copyrights are worse than patents tbh

some patents make sense, although patent reform should happen

No, they don't need to reverse engineer it.