Invention Secrecy on the Rise
Date: Monday, October 24, 2011 @ 23:24:20 UTC
Topic: Testimonials
During
fiscal year 2011, there were 143 new secrecy orders imposed on patent
applications under the Invention Secrecy Act of 1951, the U.S. Patent
and Trademark Office reported this week. This represents an increase of
66% over the year before, and it is the highest number of new secrecy
orders in a single year since 1998. The Invention Secrecy Act authorizes
the government to block the disclosure of a patent application if it
contains information that might be “detrimental to the national
security.” Remarkably, this secrecy authority extends even to
privately-generated inventions that the government does not own or
control. According to USPTO statistics obtained by the Federation of
American Scientists under the Freedom of Information Act, a total of
5,241 patent secrecy orders were in effect at the end of FY 2011,
including both new secrecy orders and those from previous years that had
been renewed.
This is the highest annual total since 1995. An explanation for the
increase in secrecy orders was not reported. Nor do the statistics
themselves include anything like a “figure of merit” that would confirm
their validity or their legitimacy...
Full article: Invention Secrecy on the Rise (Via KeelyNet.com)
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