Phyllis Schlafly, demon to Jaffe/Lerner, criticizes patent reform

Jaffe and Lerner, in their book Innovation and Its Discontents, never mentioned Bardeen/Brattain/Shockley (inventors of the "good" transistor patent) or Selden ("inventor" of the bad car patent), but they mentioned Phyllis Schlafly several times. They mentioned Ollie North too, with Schlafly, North, and patent attorneys all portrayed as demons.

Phyllis has some commentary on patent reform 2007 on humanevents.com.

Separately, of the commentary in the Salt Lake City Tribune that appeared on June 25, one should note the first comment thereto, which suggested that patent trolls were bad for small inventors AND separately bemoaned the fact that small inventors would have to read bad business method patents. Putting aside the issue of bad business method patents, the whole point of the patent system is that one is supposed to read patents. By reading patents one avoids re-discovering past inventions and thereby wasting resources. Part of the tension with the folks at the Harvard Business Review (who write "plagiarize with pride") is that the business folks view the invention (and the disclosing of the invention) as a small part of innovation. And frequently a part of innovation that can be disregarded. More attention should be placed on this battlefield of the patent reform wars, which, like East Cavalry Field at Gettysburg, tends to be disregarded.