Adam Shostack wrote:
While this does prevent making things up out of whole cloth, it does not address the possibility that the hash has been broken by the agency, nor the possibility that documents will be selectively released by the agency to hurt certain parties.
None of this addresses the real flaw, which is the inability to value your patent if theres a chance that a party will remove the secrecy in whihc they invented it, and thus nullify your patent.
The whole prior art argument is that you could reasonably have heard about this other thing, or that the patent office could have found it, and thus your patent should not have been granted.
If the patent office had examiners with clearence who checked patents agianst various government claims and denied the patent on the ground that there exists prior, classified art, that would be vaugely fine; it would be a predictable risk as the patent is pending.
Adam
I agree with you, I just mentioned that it was technically feasible, but, as you pointed out, the ethical and legal aspects of this issue makes this kind of ( submarine ? ) patents undesirable. -- Vicente Silveira - vicente@certisign.com.br CertiSign Certificadora Digital Ltda.