Jim Geer filed a patent application on April 7, 2000, that describes a novel technique for tracking stealth aircraft. It was an idea that Geer, who owns a 10-person software company and has a background in physics, had been toying with for years. He had no connection to the military or defense contractors, and there was no reason to believe he was in a position to develop the technology. He thinks of his tendency to apply for patents as a way to unwind in the evenings. “Some people like football,” Geer said. “I like to tinker.”

It seemed likely that nothing practical would ever come of Geer’s patent application—one of over 315,000 filed that year—even if it were approved. But the U.S. Air Force preferred to take no chances and, using a little-known power, ordered Geer to refrain from speaking in public about his stealth-detection concept. The following August, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office sent Geer a warning letter that declared his idea a national secret.

Geer was delighted. This seemed like validation that he was onto something momentous, and he figured the government would pay him to license his patent so long as he kept his mouth shut. Besides, the garrulous Alabaman already had a handful of patents to his name, and he had never heard of other inventors with government secrecy orders. “I thought, ‘Wow, that’s neat!” he recalled. That impression soon changed when he realized that, to the government, issuing the secrecy order was the end of the story. Having an idea interesting enough to become a government secret just “means you’re S.O.L,” he said.

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