Secret Patent Applications on the Rise

AllGov
Dec. 04, 2013

Among the thousands of patents reviewed and approved each year by the federal government, a select group is kept secret from the public—a group that has grown in number lately.

During the previous fiscal year, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) approved 139 new “secrecy orders” on patent applications, according to data obtained by Secrecy News.

This secret classifying of inventions has been around since Congress adopted the Invention Secrecy Act of 1951, which authorizes government agencies to hide patent applications on grounds to protect “national security.”

Recently, though, the U.S. government has increased its use of secrecy orders, which totaled 5,445 by the end of FY2013—the highest number since 1994.

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