The Detroit suburb of Bloomfield Hills Michigan is profiled, as redundant ex auto execs creatively putter. Likewise St. Charles, a suburb of St. Louis, owing to laid-off McDonnell Douglas workers. McDonnell Douglas management was running the company into the ground before Boeing snapped it up in 1997. In Las Vegas, inventors patent as pining to live that old Las Vegas travel agent salutation: "have a lucky day." In a sterling example, the University of Arizona at Tucson has fostered a local environment of innovation.

WSJ on small inventors:

For all the lore about the patent prowess of the IBMs and Intels of the world, lone individuals are responsible for some of the greatest inventions of recent years, including implantable pacemakers and the computer mouse. Of the 85 living people in the National Inventors Hall of Fame in Akron, Ohio, 25 weren't linked with a bigger company at the time of their inventions.

Seemingly unaware of the hideous pendency problem at the PTO, WSJ reports that "it generally takes a little over two years to get a patent approved or rejected." Maybe WSJ was indulging wishing thinking regarding the duration to first office action.

In a hint to best practice for would-be patentees, WSJ: "Inventors usually pay an attorney to search the patent-office files for "prior art," to make sure their idea hasn't already been claimed."

WSJ cites the growth of patent licensing companies, mentioning Acacia Technologies and Intellectual Ventures, as brokers for patent enforcement. What WSJ fails to note is that such licensing companies are essential for individual inventors because large corporations like Microsoft are serial patent infringers who stiff-arm individual patent holders, trying to bury them in legal costs so they can keep on infringing at least cost. WSJ would never think of offending its corporate readers with such unvarnished truth; the sweet truth is more palatable. That said, the article is well written and informative.