There Are Thousands of Inventions the Government Doesn’t Want You to See. A Shady Law Is Hiding Them.

A Cold War-era law called the Invention Secrecy Act of 1951 allows U.S. government agencies to suppress patents deemed threats to national security, fueling decades of conspiracy theories about hidden world-changing inventions like the legendary “water engine.”The Invention Secrecy Act lacks clear accountability measures and vaguely defines what constitutes “national security,” making it theoretically possible for the government to suppress inventions to protect corporate interests, though no credible evidence proves this has occurred.In fiscal year 2025 alone, over 6,500 patents were subjected to secrecy orders under the act—more than half the total suppressed during all of World War II—raising questions about whether the government is applying the law too broadly.

Source: popularmechanics.com