The inventors from Michigan agreed in December to a $63,000 settlement. In the 65-year history of the Invention Secrecy Act, this stands out as a rare instance in which the government paid private inventors for a secret patent application. In doing so, the government put an end to a lawsuit that could have developed into a fundamental threat to the law itself.

There’s no clear evidence to suggest that the Invention Secrecy Act is holding back the march of technological progress. Steven Aftergood of the Federation of American Scientists keeps track of the inventions whose secrecy orders are lifted; most, he said, are notable for being perfectly ordinary. “Nobody has invented warp drive or time travel. They’re fairly mundane inventions that may have some relevance to the military,” he said. “The secrecy is more sexy than the invention in many cases.”

Geer eventually convinced the Air Force to lift the secrecy order on his stealth-tracking idea, and he received a patent in 2011. Nothing ever came of it, although he insists this is mostly because he lost the chance to market it during the decade his invention was kept secret. This spring he filed an application for an additional patent related to a technology that tracks drones that stray too close to airports. Unlike his patent application from 2000, it doesn’t mention the word “stealth,” a distinction he hopes will keep the Air Force away from it. 

While Linick and the Damnjanovics felt victimized by their experiences, Geer describes his brush with patent secrecy as kind of a romp. Sure, he thinks it cost him money. But it’s the only time in his career he felt as if he almost hit it big. In his office, he has framed copies of all of his patents. His no-longer-secret secrecy order is framed, too. “The stealth patent is kind of my favorite,” he said. 

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