(FORTUNE Magazine) – It's got to be one of the weirdest alliances in recent Washington history: Phyllis Schlafly and a few other conservative activists united with Ross Perot, 27 Nobel prize winners, and an army of inventors. They've come together to battle an overhaul of the U.S. patent system that's backed by the Clinton Administration and a who's who of corporate America. And they just might win.

The patent reform bill that they oppose passed the House last year and was approved in slightly different form by a Senate committee. This year it's likely to come before the full Senate.

The legislation seeks to harmonize the U.S. patent system with international standards. The most controversial provision would create a "prior use" exemption, allowing companies to avoid paying patent royalties if they can prove they'd already been using a technology or process before it was patented. The Senate version of the bill would also require publication of a patent application after 18 months if the inventor applied for a U.S. and a foreign patent. Presently in the U.S., a patent isn't published until it's granted--which can take years.

Supporters, which include GE, Microsoft, Intel, IBM, and Du Pont, say "prior use" and early publication will protect them from "submarine patents"--applications that lie hidden in the patent process for years only to surface after a company has started using a technology. (Companies often choose not to patent technologies in order to keep them secret from competitors.) They also consider 18-month publication necessary to level the international playing field: Patent applications from U.S. companies are made public abroad, while foreign applications in the U.S. are kept secret.

With White House and heavyweight corporate support, the legislation once seemed unstoppable. But it caught the attention of some on the political right. Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.) and activist Schlafly, who believes the bill favors America's Asian competitors, denounced the plan as a sellout to foreign interests.

The opponents were written off by Bruce Lehman, the U.S. Commissioner of Patents and Trademarks, as part of the "lunatic fringe." But dismissing them became tougher in September when Franco Modigliani, a Nobel Prize-winning MIT economist, rounded up 26 other Nobel laureates to oppose the legislation. Inventors also attacked the proposal, saying it will be the death of a system that has made the U.S. the birthplace of most of the significant inventions of the 20th century. They believe prior use and early publication will make it easier for large corporations to steal ideas or ignore the patent system.

The possibility that the U.S. might be endangering its culture of innovation has attracted opponents such as Sen. Christopher Bond, a moderate Republican from Missouri who heads the small-business committee, and Perot, who views the proposal as another surrender in the trade wars.

Lehman says the reforms will actually help small inventors by streamlining the patent process. But an aide to Bond says the legislation faces growing skepticism in the Senate. Whether it's romance or realism, the tradition of Edison and Bell still exerts a strong pull on Capitol Hill.

--Reed Karaim

REED KARAIM is an Alexandria, Va., freelance writer specializing in technology.