The implement selected by the Court to vindicate the competition–monopoly balance may be characterized as a per se rule. Any state law which operates to jar the balance, however incidentally, is, per se, an illegitimate impediment and to be condemned. In the view of Mr. Justice Black, writing for the majority, just "as a State cannot encroach upon the federal patent laws directly, it cannot, under some other law . . . give protection of a kind that clashes with the objectives of the federal patent laws." . . . Though "International News Service" has never been expressly overruled, the Court was, in "Sears" and "Compco", apparently rejecting its approach.