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Congress Asks Patent Office To Consider Secret Patents
Fluffeh writes "The USPTO is considering a rather interesting request straight from lobbyists via congress: that certain 'Economically Significant' patents should be kept secret during the process (PDF Warning) of being evaluated and granted. While this does occur at the moment on a very select few patents 'due to national security' for things like nuclear energy and the like — this would allow it to go much, much further. 'By statute, patent applications are published no earlier than 18 months after the filing date, but it takes an average of about three years for a patent application to be processed. This period of time between publication and patent award provides worldwide access to the information included in those applications. In some circumstances, this information allows competitors to design around U.S. technologies and seize markets before the U.S. inventor is able to raise financing and secure a market.'"
The irony is that sort of work is in fact exempt from child labor laws. As long as they're YOUR kids you can do that. I knew a kid in elementary school who used to handle the register for his parent's burger stand. I've also heard similiar stories from people in the US who were raised on farms. Hell most of the kids I've known on welfare did whatever odd jobs were needed to help their family get by. Strictly speaking the only group in the US being hindered by child labor laws at this point is the middle class law abiding citizen. If you're not law abiding you've 'working' regardless of the labor laws and if you ARE law abiding, unless you have some supernatural talent that can be leveraged for millions of dollars (or to sell drugs) then you're going to find the opportunities to get work before you're 16 slim to nil (there are exceptions, but the paperwork for it is a huge pain and most employers want it filled out beforehand, and the state/feds want it filled out afterward. A catch 22 for juvenile employment, even in high school.)
If I seem bitter, this particular limitation led to my NEET-ness. Now like japanese, british, and some of my fellow americans I've succeeded in making it to 30 without any signs of future self-improvement/employment.