Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's a valid question. The current duration is 20 years. But companies with sophisticated IP lawyers, like FPGA vendors, can create "evergreen" patents by tweaking existing ones to last 100 years or more. Also, small companies generally cannot afford patent litigation, so most fold after just receiving a letter. Hollywood is located in LA because East Coast companies didn't want to pay Edison patent royalties. Moving…
> Moving to another state is less likely to work these days Would these patents apply in the EU?
I suspect that US evergreen patents would be annoying to the EU if pointed out, though.
I don't really get the desire to make your own FPGAs though. They will probably end up being slower and more expensive. It makes more sense to me to work on toolchain software.