An exploding scientific data base is the primary engine of the United States economy. It has already collapsed the profitable lives of products and processes to just a few years in many industries. This unprecedented phenomenon stems from the fact that about 90 percent of all scientific knowledge has been generated over just the last 25 years. This knowledge base, the seed corn of innovation, likely will double again in less than ten years, accelerating the loss of many famous corporate names. Consequently, the ability to sustain a market monopoly has become increasingly difficult. The patent laws have always permitted a patent monopoly for a limited time (now 20 years), which is rarely realized. In fact, in the world of commerce, even a dominating patent will rarely control a market for long, as disruptive next-generation technologies continue to rapidly emerge. As a result, about 80 percent of the famous corporate names originally listed in the Fortune 100 are no longer listed there, and based on current rates of disappearance, perhaps 80 percent of those currently listed may not survive the next ten years. IBM, for instance, had a dominant position in mainframe computers and barely avoided antitrust dissolution in the early 1980s. But then the Apple II personal computer was emerging (who needed a personal computer?) By the early 1990s, IBM was on the ropes until it restructured itself into a service-type company and is thriving once more. Xerox invented the first copier, but its dominant position has long since eroded. Kodak and General Motors are other classic examples of lost dominance in their areas of technology, overtaken by new innovations in a hyper-competitive global marketplace. Antitrust Mindset Despite this history, the antitrust mindset of 120 years ago is still with us. The Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890 was designed to eliminate monopolistic practices of the American Railway Union, the American Tobacco Company and the Norton Securities Trust. However, even by 1907 the need for government intervention was already in question when the famous antitrust split-up of the Standard Oil Company occurred. In retrospect, the company market share (for kerosene) had already declined to 64 percent from 90 percent, and some 147 other companies were already in the refining business, including Texaco, Sun and Gulf Oil. Subsequent legislation has made it illegal for companies to carve up markets among themselves, or to collude in fixing prices or in bidding for contracts, and all these actions are monitored by the Federal Trade Commission. …