USPTO Requiring Dual Use Export Control Affirmation on Electronic Filings

Thanks to the anonymous readers who recently pointed out that the USPTO is now requiring acceptance of the following "Dual Use Export License Text" before submitting documents for electronic filing that were saved in "My Workspace" on EFS Web:

I understand that technology and/or software included in patent applications may be subject to U.S. dual-use export controls, which are set out in the Export Administration Regulations (15 C.F.R. parts 730-774). Access to such technology and/or software by any person located outside the United States or by a foreign national inside the United States constitutes an export that may require a license from the U.S. Commerce Department's Bureau of Industry and Security ("BIS"). I affirm that I am not accessing or permitting access by others to technology or software in a manner that would violate or circumvent the Export Administration Regulations.

Information regarding U.S. dual-use export controls and their application to technology and software included in patent applications is available from BIS. Please see BIS's website, available at http://www.bis.doc.gov/, or contact BIS's Office of Exporter Services at 202-482-4811.

Will someone at the USPTO please explain this?

Isn't this exactly what a foreign filing license is designed to accomplish?

Perhaps the USPTO's parent agency, the U.S. Department of Commerce, is concerned that a registered practitioner under the same customer number might imrpoperly view an application on Private PAIR before the foreign filing license is granted? If so, then couldn't this Notice be revised to reflect any such actual concerns, rather than "hiding the pickle" behind volumunous and nearly impregnable export control regulations?

The patent community can't very well address a problem that it can't understand.