Isn't Being a Wicked Woman Much Better? - Vol. 2 Ch. 50

[MangaDex]

 

[Kaarme]

I remember someone wondering, years ago, if the patent is eternal and how such a thing would impact the society. But since it only lasts 15 years, it won't have much of an impact, in the end. Of course by now neighbouring countries would have copied the equations and over there everybody would be using them for free, not caring about patents in the empire, but that doesn't necessarily matter much. Mages seem to be rather few and far between, relatively speaking. They also tend to land decent jobs (or be from rich families), from what I recall, so the subscription fee, even if Debora is raising it faster than Adobe and all the rest in our world, won't really stop folks from using the equations even in the empire.