I've been in a place where a bigger company copied our work (including our typos!) and we finally used a patent for our lawyers to get them to knock it off. But

I've been in a place where a bigger company copied our work (including our typos!) and we finally used a patent for our lawyers to get them to knock it off. But it was very painful waiting the 2-3 years for the patent to be granted. We would have gladly taken a shorter term, like 8 years, in exchange for getting the patent granted faster. We didn't need to hold onto the stuff forever, but we needed some breathing room.