A patent will not last forever. Once a patent expires you stand to lose that protection. A typical patent will last anywhere from 14 to 20 years from the filing date depending on the type of patent you filed. The time limit is good though, it helps keep the patent system open to new businesses looking to file or get patents on similar products and designs held by other companies.

The 14 to 20 years is a nice amount of time for a business to get the patent, and get the product to market. Once your product in on the market, you have plenty of time to brand your product and grab a major foothold in the market segment in which your product falls.

Once you lose protection though, you still may have the right to re-file, make modifications to the original, etc. Also depending on your product, there will more than likely be very few people looking to take your design and copy it. This is usually a much bigger problem that larger corporations have to deal with. Always check the US patent website for details.

Here is an article mentioning the expiration of a company’s patent and how it may or may not affect their financials.

No matter what, keep those ideas and inventions coming…