Mazda does indeed own the exclusive rights to produce rotary powered cars. Other companies including major US companies attempted to build rotary cars back in the 60's and 70's, and failed either due to a number of things, such as:
The cost of retooling assembly lines.
The lack of servicing and costomer knowlage(A lot of people who buy American cars just don't know cars and don't care).
The mileage issue.
The fact that while once built it's a pretty easy engine to work on if you know what you're doing, to design and produce the engine and the car for it can be difficult.
The milage issue combined with the Oil Crisis nearly sent Mazda out of buisness, and would have, if Mazda didn't make piston cars(or piston versions of thier rotary cars).
The thing is, the piston engine has been around since, well, a hell of a long time, something like back to the 1860's(talking about the internal combustion engine, not like the big pistons that are on steam engines and the like), so it's had a ton of time to develope and get better. Also since all car companies up till Mazda used it, people knew the engine well, and it had the backing of many of the companies that made it to develope further.
The rotary is still developing in leaps and bounds for every new rotary produced. Unfortunately, since Mazda is the only company using it, they are the only company developing it, so the whole developement and improoving technology of the engine takes longer. The RX-8's Renesis is a huge step forward for the rotary, moving the ports from the rotor housing to the side housings, virtually cutting out cycle overlap(Before the Renesis, the ports were on the rotor housings, and worked when the apex seals(the 3 tips of the rotor) went over them. Since the rotor tips are very skinny(the surface area that stays on the housing), the tip would get to the port, and for a split second the port's cycle would go on both sides of the tip, overlapping cycles and causing the mileage issue and several running issues), and I believe that the Renesis can last as long as any piston engine(if properly maintained).
SS69 - Your thought processes are that of an 8 year old. No rightfully minded 18 year old car person says such a comment as you did about V8s being the epitome of a great engine. Lemme guess, your first car is/was a inline 4? Thought so. As a 17 year old driver of an 82hp 16 year old 323, I have the right to say that you are completely wrong. But hey, if you prefer bad gas mileage, increased car insurence, and a heavy tanker of an engine(and a tank of a car it's in), then I guess that a V8 is what you really need...
I would take an old school pushrod any day of the week. I find them the simplest engines to work on even though they have more parts then a rotary. I still stand by my old rotary though 
Now are you talking about an old school Mach 1 or a new Mach 1???
