§ Mr. Meacherasked the Secretary of State for Defence why he has blocked the application by J. L. C. Data of Barnsley for a patent to protect the system it has devised to prevent the piracy of software and the illegal access to private information on other people's computers; and in what way he believes this invention could prejudice the defence of the United Kingdom.
§ Mr. Pattie[pursuant to his reply, 29 March 1984, c. 298]: When the J. L. C. Data patent application was filed at the Patent Office it was routinely compared with a list of defence-sensitive subjects supplied to the Office by the Ministry of Defence. There appeared to be some possibility that the patent application might contain sensitive information; the office accordingly prohibited publication under section 22 of the Patents Act 1977. Later, with the applicant's permission, the Ministry of Defence made a close expert assessment of the defence sensitivity of the information in the patent application and concluded that the prohibition could be lifted. This decision was communicated to the applicant by the Patent Office. This procedure reflects the normal practice for all patent applications considered to come within the classified list.