Many new technologies take twenty years or more to move from research discovery to commercial application. For example high temperature superconductors (HTS) we

Many new technologies take twenty years or more to move from research discovery to commercial application. For example high temperature superconductors (HTS) were discovered in 1986. The Holbrook Superconductor Project in 2008 is what is cited as the first major commercial use of HTS. A few other power projects using HTS are being constructed and HTS is starting to see some use in specialty magnets. How much 20 year patents slow down scientific development is highly debated but most companies try hard to have more than one supplier for anything critical to their business. These companies will tend to avoid having anything patented by some other company in their products.