I think you need to brush up the current state of copyright and patent laws.
Here are a few simple questions to set you on the right path:
(1) How old is Mickey Mouse and what will happen if you use his image for your purposes? Answer will yield, so much for "short amount of time".
(2) What is the current legal standing if I go to India, figure out some useful cultural aspect say yoga or herbal medicine, and then patent them here in US of A. Hint: take a look at for some opinions:
atimes.com
Biopiracy-friendly laws worry neem battle winner
By Ranjit Dev Raj
NEW DELHI - A prominent Indian intellectual rights campaigner who successfully battled to have European patents to a transnational corporation (TNC) for pesticides from the neem tree revoked, says the battle against biopiracy must begin at home...
atimes.com
It's patently obvious
By Siddharth Srivastava
NEW DELHI - It is a US$30 billion-a-year business in America, with its roots in India. Long before outsourcing became a dirty word, India was being tapped by new-age gurus, both Western and Indian, to impart to Americans and Europeans the virtues of the ancient traditions of yoga that teach the blending of mind, body and soul...where there is business there are new rules and vested interests that transcend the virtues of the exercise form...India has its own fears in the matter. It is the World Trade Organization (WTO) regime of intellectual property rights, trademarks, patents and copyrights that threatens to infringe on an area that India considers its own fief. India feels that it stands to lose its traditional rights over yoga and related ancient fields of study about medicine and health and possible revenue streams, if it does not act fast...It may be recalled that India raised quite an international furor when America's Ricetec Inc was granted a patent for the basmati variety of fragrant rice in 1997. The rice had been grown for centuries in the Himalayan foothills, and India has since won the patent battle for basmati...India has taken note of future attempts at bio-piracy, which in a way is similar to people booking Internet domain names - "cyber-squatting". "We want to completely patent our age-old methods and techniques to protect them. We have to protect our traditions and our database. India is filing for more and more patents every day," says Science and Technology Minister Kapil Sibal.
(3) But for the best examples you need to look at the patents that are being awarded in genetics and software development. That topic is too time consuming for me to present in meaningful details here, but trust me that it is a cesspool. By all means google it.
My point here is that there is more than one perspective on the subject. Like everything else in America these days, patents laws are made as a result of lobbying by patent holders and so they are anything but in the interest of the public. Take a look at how many ways a drug company may increase its patent life rather than do real research and come up with innovations.
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