We've decided 20 years is long enough for drug patents, and in my opinion, it should be good enough for almost all intellectual property, really. Create someth

We've decided 20 years is long enough for drug patents, and in my opinion, it should be good enough for almost all intellectual property, really. Create something new? Great! You're officially granted a monopoly on that thing for 2 decades - plenty of time to monetize it, and use the money to create some other new things. If you can't figure out a way to monetize it in that timeframe, then we'll allow others to compete with you and take a crack at it.