Imagine if you had to wait two decades after the iPhone came out to make any other touch screen phone.
Because old, disused, and forgotten is about 4 years in tech.
2 in the mobile space.
think about the sentence you just said:
"How can an old patent cause problems for DECADES when patents expire after only TWO DECADES?"
:-)
You need to capitalize "old" as well if you're looking for proper emphasis. Only new patents have decades left to do anything, while "old, disused, and forgotten" patents definitely don't, and may have only a few years left. Many of these creaky old patents you see people being brought to court for are so viciously pursued because the holder is about to lose the patent and needs to eke out as much money as possible right now. But thankfully, they can't do that with the same patent for decades.
great point! I did not consider that originally
Often it takes most of a decade for a patent to become relevant commercially - apart from design patents which are pretty much not patents as far as I can see...