Patent secrecy orders - of the economically significant kind

[Furcurequs]

Hello,

I posted this in another thread where it might get lost in the greater discussion, so I decided to pull it out and give it a thread of its own.

Most of us are, of course, somewhat aware of government secrecy orders dealing with patents that may be of national security interest.

...and it sort of makes sense that your latest and greatest ever invention for a weapon of mass destruction is maybe not shared with the world at large (or is ever really used at all, I would hope).

...but...

I find that for a government to consider issuing secrecy orders on patents that are "economically significant" because they may believe them to be "detrimental to the nation's economic security" rather disturbing.

I found this quote - apparently from the United States Patent and Trademark Office - on the Federation of American Scientists website:

Notice of Request for Comments on the Feasibility of Placing
Economically Significant Patents Under a Secrecy Order and the Need To
Review Criteria Used in Determining Secrecy Orders Related to National
Security

AGENCY: United States Patent and Trademark Office, Department of
Commerce.

ACTION: Notice of request for comments.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

SUMMARY: Pursuant to a request from Congress, the United States Patent
and Trademark Office (USPTO) is seeking comments as to whether the
United States should identify and bar from

[[Page 23663]]

publication and issuance certain patent applications as detrimental to
the nation's economic security. The USPTO is also seeking comments on
the desirability of changes to the existing procedures for reviewing
applications that might be detrimental to national security.

http://www.fas.org/sgp/news/2012/04/pto-fr.html

It's a good thing, though, that some of us (still?) live in a free market capitalistic society in which the rights of the individual - including those of the inventor - are secured by elected representatives and others in its government.

Dwayne

[getterdone]

It wouldn't surprise me if a proposal like this would become law. I use to think that goverments were elected by the people, for the people. These days it seems that the elites control who will run for top office, then we get to choose which one it will be. Two sides of the same coin.

[Andyb]

Hi,i used to read nexus magazine and every year they would bring up the best stories the last time i could be bothered to catch up with the worlds cover ups there were over 5,000 D notices on patents they range from weapons to technology that will impact the oil industry /economy,these d notices apparently have been building for years , how do they get away with it ,then again they control every thing and the media is useless,and most people are simply asleep.

[Jim Williams]

(from the posting)

‘‘By statute, patent applications are
published no earlier than 18 months after the
filing date, but it takes an average of about
three years for a patent application to be
processed. This period of time between
publication and patent award provides
worldwide access to the information
included in those applications. In some
circumstances, this information allows
competitors to design around U.S.
technologies and seize markets before the
U.S. inventor is able to raise financing and
secure a market.’’ H.R. Rpt. 112–169, at page
18 (July 20, 2011)

It seems what the House is requesting is some way American technology inventions could only be known by Americans; so we could develop them before anyone else. To publish at all; is to publish worldwide. Yet a secrecy order would prevent anyone from knowing the invention, including Americans.

Most countries publish after eighteen months. If we went back to only publishing when the patent was awarded, why wouldn't other countries follow suit? How could we do to them what we're afraid they'll do to us?

I'll bet this doesn't become law.

[Dwylbtzle]

this is just proposing that secrecy orders can be slapped on things
merely for reasons of economic dispruption
or apparently even things that are "economically significant"

**************
they already do it for "reasons of national security"
and since it would then be a national security sensitive secret-
-they don't even have to explain why to anyone
ne doubt

they're just tightening their grip a bit, with THIS one

and, apparently, NOW, obama can just DECLARE someone--ANYone, (even an american citizen on american soil) a "terrorist" and kill you with a frippin' drone

i'd say this s*** is getting out of hand
but it already long ago has gotten

[Furcurequs]

Hey Getterdone,

Considering some of the laws that have been passed in recent years that have been perhaps constitutionally questionable, I'm not sure if I would be all that surprised if something like this were to be passed, either. I would hope, though, that it wouldn't be.

I guess corruption has always been there, but lately it seems that both major parties and all three branches of our government are sharing some of the same bedfellows in regards to some (if not many) things. So, it also seems that the built in checks and balances of our government are currently not quite working as they should, either.

Honestly, these days I really can't think of the word "politician" without the word "whore" also coming to mind, and it would seem to be the "elites" as you call them - those who handle the big money and including major corporations - who are their pimps.

AndyB,

I've not really read many Nexus articles, but the numbers you gave seem to be in agreement with those found here:

http://www.fas.org/sgp/othergov/invention/stats.html

Those are supposedly the secrecy order stats put out by the United States Patent and Trademark Office and seem to cover the last five years. They are broken down by type and by the sponsoring government agency.

There is information on the types here:

http://www.fas.org/sgp/othergov/invention/program.html

I believe it would probably be safe to assume that many are on inventions that are being worked on by those in the government labs of the sponsoring agencies and/or the corporate labs of those working with them. They look to be for the most part "defense" and intelligence agencies. ...and I put "defense" in quotes there because they seem to be more "offensive" to me as of late. Okay, maybe I should have put "intelligence" in quotes, too. There. ...anyway...

I guess the secrecy orders sponsored by the Department of Energy could possibly be nuclear related and so have some true security concerns.

It seems the "John Doe" Secrecy Orders - those placed on private inventors - are fairly small in number compared to all the rest.

Though the secrecy orders are supposedly re-evaluated every year, it doesn't look like all that many are made public, and so the number of those in effect look to be steadily climbing. In other words, more seem to be imposed each year than are rescinded. Well, actually, since the secrecy order only lasts for one year and has to be "renewed," I guess that would mean "a lot more" are imposed each year than are rescinded.

You can download a pdf file of patent application numbers for which the secrecy orders have been lifted here:

http://www.fas.org/sgp/othergov/invention/rescinded.pdf

...from...

http://www.fas.org/sgp/othergov/invention/index.html

Jim,

Yeah. Imposing a secrecy order and giving Americans the chance to be the first to develop the technology doesn't quite seem to be in agreement, but after looking at the different types of secrecy orders, I think I'm beginning to see where they might be coming from. Apparently the different types have different limitations regarding disclosure - with type 1 even allowing for broad disclosure "for legitimate business purposes".

I'm sure that companies in the defense industry still manage to make quite a mint off of their "secret" inventions, so what members of congress may be considering in regards to our "economic security" may not be quite as disturbing as it first sounded.

It will be interesting to see where this goes, though.

I would think that both the inventor and our economic security might be best served if the patent office could just speed up its prosecution of patent applications and maybe be in less of a hurry to publish patent applications or even the patents themselves - especially since the inventor should be the one to have exclusive rights to his invention for the term of the patent, anyway.

Well, that and maybe the government also doing more to boost the incentives to keep manufacturing in the U.S..

Dwylbtzle,

I certainly agree with you on the drone thing. I find it very disturbing and I do believe it's gotten out of hand and that more people - and, yes, especially we Americans - should be speaking out about it.

Dwayne

[Jim Williams]

What alarms me is that I can't see how a secrecy order for economic reasons couldn't have included Pat No 3,359,678 i.e. the Frisbeeâ„¢, considering its ease of foreign manufacture and economic impact.

Granted at the time Pat No 3,359,678 was issued, there was no 18 month application publication and such as disc would be very difficult to design around. But where are economic lines drawn? Degree of technological complexity? Potential return on investment? How could such a law be applied and only exempt American manufacture? A secrecy order on an equivalent of the Frisbeeâ„¢ seems to me what these people are looking at attempting.

[Jim Williams]

Patent applications still retain Patent Pending, which should keep direct product competition out of US markets.

[getterdone]

When robotics were invented for manufactering purposes, they had a big economic inpact, lots of assembly line workers in automotive,and other industries lost there jobs. Would goverments have said that this was to disruptive to their economies, maybe. Imagine if they have blocked this new technology,others would have adopted it, and products made in North America would not be able to compete on the global market.

IMHO to be competitive and inovative, no invention should ever be denied to keep the status quo.

[Dwylbtzle]

yes, jim--they shouldn't have let that damned frisbie through
because it demonstrates that a spinning disc creates it's own gravitatonal field
(this can be proven with a bicycle wheel lain out horizontal on a scale--the faster you spin it, the lighter it gets)
and since then, we see the obvious and disturbing proliferation of flying saucers
i call it saucer pollution
oh no they aren't from aliens
but the sneaky bastard interdimensional faeries clearly latched onto it
as they are liquid quick and fiercer of wit than us feeble anthropoids

also, of course, multivarious of form, and able to attain any shape

[Dwylbtzle]

http://peswiki.com/energy/Directory:Sup ... on_Project

well, HERE's something

i used to get regular email updates from some group called the orion project
for at least a coupla years
and i thought they were interesting
and then suddenly they stopped

i guess here's the reason

**************

****************

http://www.theorionproject.org/en/05_13_10_mailing.html
WHOA!

[Dwylbtzle]

Stewart Harris: Theory of Magnetic Instability
The theory of magnetic instability is a magnetic principle which appears to be the embryo of a valid free energy device. It was invented by Stewart Harris. He applied for a patent in 1978, and it was rejected. Dr. Marion Bowman from Washington, DC traveled out to Mr. Harris’ home in Las Vegas, Nevada to witness the operation of the device. He was impressed and returned to Washington enthusiastic about its applications. Shortly after the demonstration, all copies of the patent application and other information subsequently disappeared from the Washington Patent Office. In addition, Mr. Harris’ home was broken into and his original drawings, papers, applications, and correspondence were stolen.

[getterdone]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p_cFi_kK ... ure=fvwrel

[Dwylbtzle]

jimmich posted a link about a guy named patrick flannagan (in another section),
http://www.besslerwheel.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=5366
and that guy apparently invented a device that helped deaf people hear by diverting sound information from the normal pathways thru the normal hearing nerves
directly into the hearing proccessing part of the brain
and, at first, they weren't even going to give him a patent, until he demonstrated the effect to a person with hearing problems, in the patent office--and, once they were convinced it would work, they slapped a "national security" block on it--until, 19 years later, he got that removed thru personal connections he himself just happened to develope with someone in the government
so, apparently, they block even things they just think are too nifty, or something?
who knows why
i guess ANYthing too cool COULD be used for something by a terrorist or a foreign government? if you wanted to worry that much about everything
wot's up with that?

[James_Arne]

When robotics were invented for manufactering purposes, they had a big economic inpact, lots of assembly line workers in automotive,and other industries lost there jobs. Would goverments have said that this was to disruptive to their economies, maybe. Imagine if they have blocked this new technology,others would have adopted it, and products made in North America would not be able to compete on the global market.

IMHO to be competitive and inovative, no invention should ever be denied to keep the status quo.

look at the trade deficit the U.S. has, $50 Billion a month.
This is what robotics has allowed to happen.
http://www.census.gov/indicator/www/ustrade.html