[PIUG List] Patent Gag Orders

There is a short blurb on page 18 of the Jan. 2008 issue of ASEE Prism ab=
out patent "gag orders".

It says that in FY 2007 there were 5,002 patent applications suppressed b=
y the government under the Invention Secrecy Act of 1951. This number is =
only for independent and non governmental inventors so it doesn't include=
 the number of inventions from
DoD, DARPA, etc.

I am very surprised (and shocked, and a little scared) at this number. It=
 brings to mind the caricature of the Mad Scientist, toiling away in his =
lab to create the next Dooms Day Device! Could there have been 5,002 Doom=
s Day Devices invented in FY
2007?

Or it could be yet another example of government overreach - suppressing =
inventions that maybe don't really need to be suppressed, but that contai=
n information that the government just doesn't want accessible to the pub=
lic for some contrary reason
(i.e. maybe someone DID invent a perpetual motion machine, or a time mach=
ine, or some device that can generate more energy than it takes to power =
the device).

I guess we'll never know!

Martin Wallace, Librarian
Science & Engineering Center
Raymond H. Fogler Library
University of Maine
Orono, ME 04469
207-581-1678
fax: 207-581-1653
martin.wallace_at_umit.maine.edu
http://www.library.umaine.edu/staff/wallace.htm


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Received on Thu Jan 31 2008 - 16:10:50