Sounds about right, a patent gives 20 years of protection on a new idea from the date of filing.
With a new integrated circuit, it's the idea, a month, maybe 2 to get corporate to file, six months to a year for the proof of concept chip, a year to production, and about 18 years of actual patent protection on a product that may only have a 5 year peak run.
With a new drug, its screen thousand or tens of thousands of substances for a possible therapeutic effect, get corporate to guess which ones are worth filing maybe 3-6 months, 5 years of tinkering to tease out the best form of the drug (replace a chlorine with a fluorine here, add a methyl group there, etc.) File new patent. Spend 1- 5 years evaluation for a myriad of factors, best dose, side effects, unexpected additional uses, long term safety, no three-headed babies, etc. figure out how to mass produce it. Go through FDA approval cycle 5 to infinity years, ramp up production and get in on the market with maybe 10 years of patent protection to recover all the investment in time and treasure, and hopefully turn a profit. On a product that might be useful for over a century (aspirin) or a lifetime (Hydroxychloroquin).
Some clever soul can probably figure out a better way to protect intellectual property, one that provides the temporary monopoly to encourage innovation, in a way that allows the inventor to reap benefits without excessively restricting other inventors from their own innovations.
Sounds about right, a patent gives 20 years of protection on a new idea from the date of filing.
Yes, I am in the process of filing for a Utility Patent right now.
It took me 2 months to file a "Provisional Patent Application" on which I was given a "Patent Pending", which lasts for 12 months
I am now in the process of fine tuning my control system and getting ready for field testing. It should be ready for a full filing about November, which my Attorney's advised me would take about 4 months.