secrecy orders have been imposed not only on inventions affecting military defense but also on those alleged to threaten economic stability, with critics noting that many such restrictions rest on speculative or unproven harms.
But also
The law applies broadly to all inventions in the United States for which a patent is filed or granted (35 U.S.C. § 181).
So if you really do have a society changing invention - one that could upset this capitalist or neoliberal world order - it is your duty to publically release it and not patent it
Anyone want to bet that there are inventions that are great but would cost some people serious money and that’s why we’re not seeing them?
Not taking that bet. From the linked wikipedia page.
According to reporting in Wired and Slate, the United States Patent and Trademark Office has at times considered applying secrecy orders to inventions deemed disruptive to established industries.
You may be sure that there are times when they did more than consider it.
Oh good, apparently my late father’s Folding Crossbow isn’t a restricted patent…
https://patents.google.com/patent/US4926834A/en
I still posess the prototype, albeit a bit damaged now.
6543 inventions are currently suppressed.
Like what?
/s
Pills that actually make your wang the size of an elephant trunk while making it prehensile.
Reticulated splines
Nonsense, Maxis did it for years
Successfully dividing by zero.
*lights lighting up on NSA dashboard*
My flying boots, for one.
Like an air cooled fiberglass engine that runs on water, man!?
Water? Brother that’s 50’s tech.
We’re on to Cold Fusion reactors the size of your fist, SRO high-entropy alloys, and room temp superconductors.
:D
Literally does make sense. You don’t want the how to for building a good gyroscope out there(too much). Some bits and pieces are really hard to get working well. And when you do you get great ICBMs. Still might want to patent it.
Yeah, let’s voluntarily lower the quality of all of our lives simply to give some minute advantage in the geopolitical chess game.
