>Hi,
> You may see companies like SEFE Inc, listed on the NASDAQ OTCBB market under the ticker SEFE, stating that they're on the verge of creating the next energy super-trend: an entirely new alternative energy industry called Atmospheric Energy.
>
> For the record these technologies do exist, but they have and always will fall foul of the Invention Secrecy Act http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invention_Secrecy_Act.
>
> In a nutshell, once you are ready to go into production with these technologies the Governments confiscate the invention and force you to sign the Official Secrets Act not to divulge any details regarding the invention.
>
> There have been many much better inventions than this confiscated by the Government.

I would stay away from such investments for other reasons. It may well be an investment scam, in the sense of companies claiming to have a major breakthrough when, indeed, they haven't. It wouldn't be the first time.

In this particular case, no serious scientist will doubt that there is "free energy" available in the atmosphere. The real problem is, whether it is practical to extract it. To quote the Wikipedia article on atmospheric electricity: "Whilst a certain amount of observational work has been done in the branches of atmospheric electricity, the science has not developed to a considerable extent. It is thought that any apparatus which might be used to extract useful energy from atmospheric electricity would be prohibitively costly to build and maintain, which is probably why the field has not attracted much interest."

If it does, indeed, work - well, of course they will work, but if there is a chance that they are commercially successful - I personally don't see the relationship with the secrecy act. In any case, that applies to the United States; it would be possible to do research and development in other countries.