[net-gold] Secrecy News -- 04/27/12
- From: "David P. Dillard" <jwne@xxxxxxxxxx>
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- Date: Fri, 27 Apr 2012 11:31:18 -0400 (EDT)
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Date: Fri, 27 Apr 2012 09:38:08 -0400
From: Steven Aftergood <saftergood@xxxxxxx>
To: saftergood@xxxxxxx
Subject: Secrecy News -- 04/27/12
SECRECY NEWS
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from the FAS Project on Government Secrecy
Volume 2012, Issue No. 39
April 27, 2012
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Secrecy News Blog:
http://www.fas.org/blog/secrecy/
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** GOVT APPEALS COURT-ORDERED RELEASE OF CLASSIFIED DOCUMENT
** PATENT OFFICE WEIGHS PATENT SECRECY FOR "ECONOMIC SECURITY"
** CARBON CAPTURE RESEARCH, AND MORE FROM CRS
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GOVT APPEALS COURT-ORDERED RELEASE OF CLASSIFIED DOCUMENT
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Government attorneys said yesterday that they would appeal an extraordinary
judicial ruling that required the release of a classified document in
response to a Freedom of Information Act request.
http://www.fas.org/sgp/jud/ciel/042612-notice.pdf
The document in question is a one-page position paper produced by the U.S.
Trade Representative (USTR) concerning the U.S. negotiating position in free
trade negotiations. It was classified Confidential and was not supposed to
be disclosed before 2013.
But immediate disclosure of the document could not plausibly cause damage to
the national security, said DC District Judge Richard W. Roberts in a
February 29, 2012 opinion, and so its continued classification, he said, is
not "logical." He ordered the government to release the document to the
Center for International Environmental Law, which had requested it under
FOIA. See "Court Says Agency Classification Decision is Not 'Logical',"
Secrecy News, March 2, 2012.
http://www.fas.org/blog/secrecy/2012/03/not_logical.html
This kind of independent review of the validity of classification decisions,
which is something that judges normally refrain from doing, offers one way
to curb galloping overclassification.
While the substance of the USTR document is likely to be of little general
interest, the court's willingness to disregard the document's ill-founded
classification and to require its disclosure seems like a dream come true to
critics of classification policy. If the decision serves as a precedent and
a spur to a more broadly skeptical judicial approach to classification
matters, so much the better.
But what may be a dream to some is a nightmare to others. The bare
possibility of such an emerging challenge to executive classification
authority was evidently intolerable to the Obama Administration, which will
now seek to overturn Judge Roberts' ruling in the DC Circuit Court of
Appeals.
http://www.fas.org/blog/secrecy/2012/03/ustr_may_appeal.html
PATENT OFFICE WEIGHS PATENT SECRECY FOR "ECONOMIC SECURITY"
In response to congressional direction, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office
is considering whether to expand the scope of patent secrecy orders -- which
prohibit the publication of affected patent applications -- in order to
enhance "economic security" and to protect newly developed inventions
against exploitation by foreign competitors.
Currently, patent secrecy orders are applied only to patent applications
whose disclosure could be "detrimental to national security" as prescribed
by the Invention Secrecy Act of 1951. At the end of Fiscal Year 2011, there
were 5,241 such national security secrecy orders in effect.
http://www.fas.org/sgp/othergov/invention/index.html
But now the Patent Office is weighing the possibility of expanding national
security patent secrecy into the "economic security" domain.
"The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office is seeking comments as to whether the
United States should identify and bar from publication and issuance certain
patent applications as detrimental to the nation's economic security,"
according to a notice that was published in the Federal Register on April
20:
http://www.fas.org/sgp/news/2012/04/pto-fr.html
That would be a mistake, I wrote in my own comments submitted to the Patent
Office yesterday.
Economic security -- which could conceivably implicate all new inventions --
is not analogous to the more limited domain of national security-related
inventions, "so the use of secrecy orders is inappropriate to protect
economic security," I suggested.
Instead, the existing option for an applicant to request nonpublication of
his or her patent application up to the point that the patent is issued is a
superior alternative to a mandatory secrecy order, I wrote. "The inventor
is likely to be better qualified than any third party to assess the economic
significance of the invention, and is also likely to be best motivated to
protect his or her own financial interests."
http://www.fas.org/sgp/news/2012/04/pto-fas.html
"The USPTO has not taken a position" on these questions, the Patent Office
said in its April 20 notice, "nor is it predisposed to any particular
views."
CARBON CAPTURE RESEARCH, AND MORE FROM CRS
Noteworthy new and updated reports from the Congressional Research Service
that Congress has not made readily available to the public include the
following.
Carbon Capture and Sequestration: Research, Development, and Demonstration
at the U.S. Department of Energy, April 23, 2012:
http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R42496.pdf
Members of Congress Who Die in Office: Historic and Current Practices, April
25, 2012:
http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/RL34347.pdf
Hydraulic Fracturing and the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA):
Selected Issues, April 25, 2012:
http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R42502.pdf
Domestic Content Legislation: The Buy American Act and Complementary Little
Buy American Provisions, April 25, 2012:
http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R42501.pdf
The STOCK Act, Insider Trading, and Public Financial Reporting by Federal
Officials, April 19, 2012:
http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R42495.pdf
Data Security Breach Notification Laws, April 10, 2012:
http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R42475.pdf
Requiring Individuals to Obtain Health Insurance: A Constitutional Analysis,
April 6, 2012:
http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R40725.pdf
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_______________________________________________
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Secrecy News is written by Steven Aftergood and published by the Federation
of American Scientists.
The Secrecy News Blog is at:
http://www.fas.org/blog/secrecy/
To SUBSCRIBE to Secrecy News, go to:
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Secrecy News is archived at:
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Support the FAS Project on Government Secrecy with a donation:
http://www.fas.org/member/donate_today.html
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_______________________
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Steven Aftergood
Project on Government Secrecy
Federation of American Scientists
web: www.fas.org/sgp/index.html
email: saftergood@xxxxxxx
voice: (202) 454-4691
twitter: @saftergood
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- » [net-gold] Secrecy News -- 04/27/12 - David P. Dillard
