No it&#x27;s not and most Government agencies do the same for classified and unclassified projects for obvious reasons.<p>The NSA isn&#x27;t special they just go out of their way to make is appear to be, DARPA also files secret patents, and so most defense contractors if the project is classified.<p>As for patents, well universities get the rights for patents for research funded with public funding and conducted by students, heck even  NASA and the EPA file for patents and so does every other agency.<p>In most cases agencies have a Technology Transfer Program (TTP) that enables them to transfer their technology and license their patents (often for free) to US industry.<p>The NSA files for patents sure, but they aren&#x27;t making money on them in most cases what they do often do is ensure that US industry remains on top because US patents still matter quite a bit and when anyone attempts to file a similar patent the NSA is granted the patent based on their earlier filing which is then more often than not is transferred to the US industry through their TTP.<p>And whats exactly absurd here? Your money has been already spent, would you rather some one else (just as likely to be a non-US for-profit company) would get that patent instead? We can debate patents all year long but claiming this is some sort of a unique case or misuse &#x2F; abuse of power is well as you put it absurd.<p>P.S.<p>If you are interested here is their latest catalog, lets not treat that blog post as some form of actual investigative journalism. 
<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.nsa.gov&#x2F;research&#x2F;_files&#x2F;tech_transfers&#x2F;nsa_technology_transfer_program.pdf" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.nsa.gov&#x2F;research&#x2F;_files&#x2F;tech_transfers&#x2F;nsa_techn...</a>