Seems like a potential incentive for those with national security-related inventions to stay away from the USPTO altogether, and rely on trade secrecy instead.
"national security-related inventions" - it is a pretty vague notion. Anybody who saw real "national interest" Green Card applications can attest to it :) All China driving Priuses or Teslas would make China much more [energy] independent and this definitely would be related to US national security. Does it mean that such patents and technology should be made controlled or even secret?
Charitable yes, but not exactly in their interests.
35 U.S.C. 122 Confidential status of applications; publication of patent applications. *
(b) PUBLICATION.— (1) IN GENERAL.— (A) Subject to paragraph (2), each application for a patent shall be published, in accordance with procedures determined by the Director, promptly after the expiration of a period of 18 months from the earliest filing date for which a benefit is sought under this title. At the request of the applicant, an application may be published earlier than the end of such 18-month period. ... (2) EXCEPTIONS.— (A) An application shall not be published if that application is— ... (ii) subject to a secrecy order under section 181 ;
no. You have 1 year since first public disclosure to file for actual patent.
I think he means that upon filing the patent application, one publishes what one has filed to mitigate the return to the government from classifying the invention as secret.
This would not impair the patentability of the invention. Patent applications (in the US) are published 18 months after their earliest filing date [1] unless the applicant requests earlier publication.
The applicant's chances of receiving a patent are unchanged by publishing the invention after the application is filed.
A downside could be that should the patent application fail, or be withdrawn by the applicant, the invention falls in the public domain because it's been published and no patent protection issued.