 |
There are currently, 389 guest(s) and 0 member(s) that are online.
You are Anonymous user. You can register for free by clicking here
| |
| |
Invention Secrecy Still Going Strong
Posted on Sunday, October 24, 2010 @ 18:42:54 UTC by vlad
|
|
Via KeelyNet.com: There
were 5,135 inventions that were under secrecy orders at the end of
Fiscal Year 2010, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office told Secrecy News
last week. It’s a 1% rise over the year before, and the highest total
in more than a decade. Under the Invention Secrecy Act of 1951, patent
applications on new inventions can be subject to secrecy orders
restricting their publication if government agencies believe that
disclosure would be “detrimental to the national security.” The current
list of technology areas that is used to screen patent applications for
possible restriction under the Invention Secrecy Act is not publicly
available and has been denied under the Freedom of Information Act. (An
appeal is pending.)
But a previous list dated 1971 and obtained by researcher Michael Ravnitzky is available here - (pdf).
Most of the listed technology areas are closely related to military
applications. But some of them range more widely. Thus, the 1971 list
indicates that patents for solar photovoltaic generators were subject to
review and possible restriction if the photovoltaics were more than 20%
efficient. Energy conversion systems were likewise subject to review
and possible restriction if they offered conversion efficiencies “in
excess of 70-80%.” One may fairly ask if disclosure of such technologies
could really have been “detrimental to the national security,” or
whether the opposite would be closer to the truth. One may further ask
what comparable advances in technology may be subject to restriction and
non-disclosure today. But no answers are forthcoming, and the
invention secrecy system persists with no discernible external review.
- Full Article Source
|
| |
|
Don't have an account yet? You can create one. As a registered user you have some advantages like theme manager, comments configuration and post comments with your name.
| |
|
|
No Comments Allowed for Anonymous, please register |
|
Re: Invention Secrecy Still Going Strong (Score: 1)
by Veryskeptical on Wednesday, October 27, 2010 @ 17:19:38 UTC
(User Info | Send a Message) | Issues such as the above need to be considered in a broader context. Crises in government are continuing to spread. A general crisis of legitimacy seems likely in the next few years. The anti technological motif is only one strand in a rising tide of dysfunction. It seems likely that the technological suppression issue will have to be addressed from within a more general reform of government and society induced by governmental collapse.
Just today I saw an article suggesting one way colonization of Mars. The author argues that this would require a return to the attitudes of the great days of Western exploration in which people left to settle on other continents without expectation of ever returning. A very different attitude from today's safety first, politically correct viewpoint.
I concur. A true solution to technological secrecy requires the rebirth of a more adventurous attitude. A willingness to accept both the risks and the gains. Many of the problems discussed on zpenergy require solutions that beg for the death of this age and the rise of a more adventurous vision.
Hopefully this age will soon die of its own funk. Then we shall see what can be done. However, no one should neglect the point that success will depend on the temper of the time to come.
|
|
|
Re: Invention Secrecy Still Going Strong (Score: 1)
by Koen on Saturday, October 30, 2010 @ 11:00:32 UTC
(User Info | Send a Message) http://no.nl/tesla | It is outrageous that high efficient solar photovoltaic patents can be subject to a secrecy order. This is nothing to do with our "savety", on the contrary, these secrecy orders endanger our world.
What is the commercial value of patents anyway? It is only a mean to maintain monopolies, in particular in combination with secrecy orders.
People should understand that the "invention secrecy act" is illegal, and in direct contradiction with the Bill of Rights of all Americans.
|
Re: Invention Secrecy Still Going Strong (Score: 1)
by nanotech on Monday, November 01, 2010 @ 08:51:49 UTC
(User Info | Send a Message) | Great point, Koen. The Invention Secrey has not helped American people. It has only helped line the pockets of the elite.
Imagine if this act and the National Security Act (which does a similiar thing) were suspended, how things would change.
|
]
Re: Invention Secrecy Still Going Strong (Score: 1)
by nanotech on Monday, November 01, 2010 @ 08:54:26 UTC
(User Info | Send a Message) | Here is the actual act, you can read about it:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invention_Secrecy_Act
From Wikipedia:
"
The Invention Secrecy Act of 1951, codified at 35 U.S.C. [en.wikipedia.org] § 181 [www.law.cornell.edu]– 188 [www.law.cornell.edu] (Title 35, Chapter 17 of the United States Code [en.wikipedia.org]), is a body of United States federal law [en.wikipedia.org] designed to prevent disclosure of new inventions [en.wikipedia.org] and technologies [en.wikipedia.org] that, in the opinion of selected federal agencies [en.wikipedia.org], present a possible threat to the national security [en.wikipedia.org] of the United States.
The U.S. government [en.wikipedia.org] has long sought to control the release of new technologies that might threaten the national defense [en.wikipedia.org] and economic stability of the country. During World War I [en.wikipedia.org], Congress [en.wikipedia.org] authorized the United States Patent and Trademark Office [en.wikipedia.org] (PTO) to classify certain defense-related patents [en.wikipedia.org]. This initial effort lasted only for the duration of that war but was reimposed in October 1941 [en.wikipedia.org] in anticipation of the U.S. entry into World War II [en.wikipedia.org].
Patent secrecy orders were initially intended to remain effective for
two years, beginning on July 1, 1940, but were later extended for the
duration of the war.
The Invention Secrecy Act of 1951 made such patent secrecy permanent. Under this Act, defense agencies [en.wikipedia.org]
provide the PTO with a classified list of sensitive technologies in the
form of the "Patent Security Category Review List" (PSCRL). The
decision to classify new inventions under this act is made by "defense
agencies" as defined by the President [en.wikipedia.org]. Generally, these agencies include the Army [en.wikipedia.org], Navy [en.wikipedia.org], Air Force [en.wikipedia.org], National Security Agency [en.wikipedia.org] (NSA), Department of Energy [en.wikipedia.org], and NASA [en.wikipedia.org], but even the Justice Department [en.wikipedia.org] has played this role."
|
]
Re: Invention Secrecy Still Going Strong (Score: 1)
by BlackwoodLabs on Friday, January 14, 2011 @ 13:49:56 UTC
(User Info | Send a Message) | There is an easy counter to the secrecy act. It's called "Public Disclosure". And it used to be that in scientific circles at least, it was the accepted means of recognition for your discoveries. The discovery was dedicated to the benefit of mankind as a whole, but of course the discoverer had the foot in the door so to speak in terms of commercial exploitation. This system would still be the norm were not every tom, dick and harry more worried about turning a profit. So in the end, we've met the enemy and he are us.
JB
|
]
|
|
The Patent Law of Perpetual Motion (Score: 1)
by vlad on Thursday, October 13, 2011 @ 21:50:41 UTC
(User Info | Send a Message) http://www.zpenergy.com | Via KeelyNet.com [www.keelynet.com]: Over the weekend I wrote an article titled Turning Your Idea into an Invention [ipwatchdog.com].
In the article I talked about the fact that you do not need to have a
prototype, but rather you need to be able to describe your invention
with enough detail so that others will be able to understand what you
have invented. This is true except in the scenario of a perpetual
motion machine, which I acknowledged in the article. I didn’t want to
go off on what would have been a lengthy tangent, but I knew as I was
typing that paragraph I would circle back and fill in the blanks
regarding the law as it pertains to perpetual motion machines....
Full article: http://ipwatchdog.com/2011/10/11/the-patent-law-of-perpetual-motion/id=19828/ [ipwatchdog.com]
|
|
|
|
|
