

How Xerox Helped Win the Cold War - sophacles
http://www.editinternational.com/read.php?id=47ddf19823b89

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ggchappell
> Mr. Zoppoth designed what he called a ‘slit camera’ and received a secret US
> patent on it.

A "secret US patent"???

The idea behind the patent system (whether or not you think it works well) is
for the government to grant a limited-time monopoly in exchange for
_publicizing_ an idea. A "secret patent" defeats the whole purpose.

Secondly, how would anyone determine whether they were infringing such a
patent? How could it be enforced?

And finally, if an idea is to remain secret for a time, then, even if the
patent can somehow be kept secret, why would you patent it at all? That starts
a clock ticking toward the expiration of the patent. You would want to start
that clock as late as possible, I would think. Why not wait until the idea is
publicized?

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damienkatz
I was intrigued by the concept, Googled "Secret Patent" and found this:
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Security_Agency#Patent...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Security_Agency#Patents)

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ggchappell
Wow. And they don't expire.

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hga
To paraphrase Lenin, "The Capitalists will sell us the rope with which we will
hang ourselves."

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julius_geezer
For "Everything the Soviet embassy staff routinely copied on their new
photocopier was of vital intelligence value to the United States." read "The
CIA wanted everything the staff copied." No doubt prodigies of inference can
be achieved from routine data, but you can bet that there were a lot of
expense reports and dinner menus copied.

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philwelch
Was a Xerox machine really so inscrutable that they couldn't have a Soviet
engineer take the thing apart and reverse engineer it? I can't imagine being
dependent upon enemy citizens having unrestricted access to equipment you
don't understand in your own embassy.

