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Government Secrecy Orders on Patents Have Stifled More Than 5,000 Inventions
www.wired.com
If the government thinks your patent-pending invention has national security implications, it can slap a secrecy order on it that prevents you from developing it. More than 5,300 such orders have been issued, with some of them in effect for decades.
http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2013/04/gov-secrecy-orders-on-patents/