Overview[]
The Armed Services Patent Advisory Board (ASPAB) is a semi-autonomous interservice unit operated under the administrative control of the Army Judge Advocate General's intellectual property division. ASPAB serves as the conduit for referral of all patent applications from the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office (PTO) to the Department of Defense. ASPAB designates the appropriate DoD technical experts to do the actual review. If it is concluded that publication or disclosure of the patent application would be detrimental to the national security, ASPAB recommends that the PTO impose a secrecy order, which is generally binding on the PTO.
Source[]
- Administration of the Invention Secrecy Act in the Patent and Trademark Office (1991) (full-text).