Patent law "survived" Edison?

Text by Brad Smith of Microsoft:

And none of us claim to have anything even remotely approaching all of the answers, but as we thought more about this it struck us that a few things may be pertinent. And one is what we really need is that there is a multifaceted approach. I can stand up here as a lawyer and say the law will continue to be important. It always has. It has survived inventions that began in 1878 when Thomas Edison invented the phonograph, and continues to this day, and it will continue to be important in the future.

Also

And finally let me introduce the other two speakers. We wanted to provide you with some perspective about what were doing as a company in the technological space and give you a sense of where our technology fits in. We as a company are really in two very different spaces when you think about it. On the one hand the market will give you this description that we are a platform and tools provider. We are creating DRM tools for other content holders to use. I think its fair to say that our philosophy is that we need to create technology that is broad and flexible enough to meet their needs, but not dictate their choices.