The US can have a patent, and indeed there is a special statute that
allows them to take your patent if the product has a national security
dimention.
On Thu, 9 Dec 1999, P.J. Ponder wrote:
> I looked in the US Constitution and didn't find a restriction there, but I
> have a vague recollection that US government agencies are not eligible for
> this sort of protection. The argument being that the taxpayers paid for
> it, and the results of the work should be free for all to use.
>
You may be mistaking patent for copyright. As a matter of policy (not
constitutional requirement) the US does not copyright works written by
federal employees, but rather releases them to the public domain.
> I'm obviously wrong, since the NSA was awarded a patent, and they are an
> agency of the US. I know US states can get patents and copyrights and I
> think the State of Florida may still be getting paid for inventing
> Gatorade, for instance. Is there a restriction on intellectual property
> protections available to agencies of the US? Was there a recent change in
> the law to allow this?
>
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