<p><span class="deck">The men and women who labored in the ghostly light of the great screen to make the music that accompanied silent movies were as much a part of the show as Lillian Gish or Douglas Fairbanks.</span></p>
<p><span class="deck">For 200 years, the United States patent system has protected, enriched, and befuddled inventors. As a tool of corporate growth in a global economy, it is now more important than ever.</span></p>
<p><span class="deck">The great democratic art form got off to a very rocky start. People simply didn’t want to crowd into a dark room to look at a flickering light, and it took nearly 20 years for Americans and motion pictures to embrace each other.</span></p>
<p>Inventor Nikola Tesla turned to an old trick to sell the brilliant concept of alternating current, which would enable the electrical power grid and the modern machines that run off it.</p>
