That could pose a threat to the temporary monopoly Nintendo was poised to get on portable 3-D gaming when its handheld game system launches in March.

CNN: LG unveils world's first 3-D smartphone

Until 2002, Biogen had the MS market to itself because of a law that grants a temporary monopoly to medicines for rare ailments, known in biotech as orphan diseases.

FORBES: Biogen Idec Hits A Nerve

But the challenge has always lain with the first half of Lincoln's phrase--that is, how to stoke that genius through a system that both rewards the inventor with a temporary business monopoly and protects the competition that lies at the heart of the free-market system.

FORBES: The smother of invention

Copyright was originally the grant of a temporary government-supported monopoly on copying a work, not a property right.

ECONOMIST: Why the rules on copyright need to return to their roots