You have got to love these patent lawsuits. Yeah, let us inhibit progress even more because you expect someone else to pay you for their hard work. I believe that copyrights and patents should last for 15 years, at the absolute max, for technology. There should be a 5 year patent and copyright length, maximum, for medications, but also have that 5 years start after the FDA finishes dragging its damned feet.
No renewals, to tag-backs, do not pass go, you lose the right to claim something as private after a certain length of time when you initially released it to the world. Now, there could be one small exception: Perhaps we could allow for a patent fee past the five or 15 year mark, adding 5 more years. This patent fee could not exceed, let's say, $2USD or something close to that.
We need to work on new products, not continue to rehash the same, old bullshit. There are too many manufacturers that are simply adding small extras, many that should have been in from the start, and essentially attempting to bait customers into purchasing the same product all over again(hello PSP, iPhone, and many others).