From: Hal Finney (hal@finney.org)
Date: Tue Jun 24 2003 - 23:35:49 MDT
Bret Paatsch writes:
> But with this Secret Patent idea, based on a convo I had with a
> patent office guy in Australia, the would be patenter subs their
> application and if anything weaponish grabs the attention of the
> examiner, the examiner is obliged to shoot it off to the the defence
> department for the once over.
Yes, this really happens. In the United States it is called a Patent
Secrecy Order and is described at http://www.sumeria.net/free/secorder.html
and http://www.fas.org/sgp/othergov/invention/program.html for example.
If your invention is given such an order, you not only don't get the
patent, you aren't allowed to make or use the invention, or to tell anyone
about it. One reference I found from the 1980s suggested that there were
several thousand patent secrecy orders in effect in the United States at
that time, many of them relating to cryptography.
> It occurs to me, please bear in mind I have only started looking
> into this, that almost all the technologies transhumanist types
> are likely to have an interest in could be seen as having some
> sort of military application. Nano, AI, cryto, aspects of biotech.
> It would be kinda nice to know that IP is not being stockpiled
> for someone else with more martial inclinations.
One way to avoid a patent secrecy order is to not patent your idea. As far
as I know, there is no comparable procedure to hush up your invention if
you don't patent it. Of course certain areas such as nuclear research
are "born classified" and you can't start selling nuclear reactors.
It's possible that eventually nanotech and similar technologies will be
treated like nuclear work, something illegal unless done under government
supervision.
Hal
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Tue Jun 24 2003 - 23:47:41 MDT