A phrase from the article virtually leaps out at the reader: "Disaster scenario No. 1: Patent pools accelerate without government opposition."<p>What? "Government opposition"? What happened to the role of <i>public</i> opposition? When did affairs of state begin to revolve around conflicts between governments and special interests, with the public permanently sidelined as irrelevant?<p>I'm not objecting to the article having said so, because I think it's true. I'm objecting that the public's role appears to have been eclipsed by the long shadow cast by special interests.