I was vague about the lenght of the protection because it depends on when you filed your patent. It's beside the point, the point is that current protection is

I was vague about the lenght of the protection because it depends on when you filed your patent. It's beside the point, the point is that current protection is very very long, roughly 20 years. You are correct, I have no proof that 7 years is the right number. I'd be happy for people to debate if it should be 6 or 10 or whatever. But I believe it's a simple enough fix. Believe me, I have been through enough patent issues, I strongly wish the system would be fixed. But most proposals so far are jist plain impractical. I'd love for patent examiners to really understand the technology and only grant truly innovative patents. But it's almost impossible. I'd like for lawsuits to not take so long and not be so arbitrary, but it would require a full reform of the legal system. Not realistic. s/20/7/a sounds much easier to me, and achieves a lot. Not perfect, but a decent tradeoff. I'm an engineer, I do tradeoffs.