It is really a myth that you can reap benefit of your patents for your life and thereafter. We must understand that in the fast changing the useful life of patent is not very long. Economically speaking patent asset’s useful life is defined as the time period over which the asset is expected to contribute directly or indirectly to patentee future cash inflows. Mind you this useful life time is always restricted by the statuary limitations and technological factors. In this context it becomes imperative to determine the patents remaining useful life (RUL).
Mr. DPS Parmar shares his views regarding the timeframe within which a patent remains useful in his Mondaq article, which can be viewed at the below link:
http://www.mondaq.com/india/x/