[Federal Register Volume 76, Number 130 (Thursday, July 7, 2011)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Pages 39796-39797]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2011-16965]



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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE



United States Patent and Trademark Office



37 CFR Chapter I



[Docket No. PTO-C-2011-0026]




Preliminary Plan for Retrospective Analysis of Existing Rules



AGENCY: United States Patent and Trademark Office, Commerce.



ACTION: Request for comments.



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SUMMARY: The United States Patent and Trademark Office (``USPTO'' or 

``Office'') has prepared a preliminary



[[Page 39797]]



plan to review its existing significant regulations in response to the 

President's Executive Order 13563 on Improving Regulation and 

Regulatory Review. The Office's plan is part of the Department of 

Commerce's (``DOC'') ``Preliminary Plan for Retrospective Analysis of 

Existing Rules,'' which recently has been made public. The Office is 

implementing the parts of DOC's plan that relate to review of the 

Office's existing significant regulations. Those parts of the plan set 

forth a process for reviewing the Office's regulations and determining 

whether any of these regulations should be modified, streamlined, 

expanded, or repealed in order to make the Office's regulatory program 

more effective and less burdensome. Now that the preliminary plan has 

been completed and published, the Office is asking the public to 

provide comments on the plan prior to it being finalized.



DATES: You must submit any comments on or before September 6, 2011.



ADDRESSES: Submit comments electronically by e-mailing them directly to 

the Office at [email protected]. Comments may also 

be submitted by mail addressed to: Office of the General Counsel, 

United States Patent and Trademark Office, P.O. Box 1450, Alexandria, 

VA 22313-1450, marked to the attention of Nicolas Oettinger. Although 

comments may be submitted by mail, the Office prefers to receive 

comments via the Internet. Comments may also be submitted through the 

Federal eRulemaking Portal Web site at http://www.regulations.gov. 

Additional instructions on providing comments through the Federal 

eRulemaking Portal are available at http://www.regulations.gov. All 

comments submitted directly to the Office or provided on the Federal 

eRulemaking Portal should include the docket number (PTO-C-2011-0026).

    All comments will be available for public inspection upon request 

at the Office of the Commissioner for Patents, located in Madison East, 

Tenth Floor, 600 Dulany Street, Alexandria, Virginia, and will be 

available on the USPTO Web site at http://www.uspto.gov. All comments 

submitted through the Federal eRulemaking Portal will be made available 

publicly on that Web site. Because comments will be made available for 

public inspection, information that the submitter does not desire to 

make public, such as an address or phone number, should not be included 

in the comments.



FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Nicolas Oettinger, Office of the 

General Counsel, by telephone at 571-272-7832, by e-mail at 

[email protected], or by mail addressed to Mail Stop 

Comments--Patents, Commissioner for Patents, P.O. Box 1450, Alexandria, 

VA 22313-1450, marked to the attention of Nicolas Oettinger.



SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: On January 18, 2011, President Obama issued 

Executive Order 13563, Improving Regulation and Regulatory Review. E.O. 

13563, 76 FR 3281. The Executive Order directed agencies to develop and 

submit, within 120 days, preliminary plans for reviewing their existing 

``significant regulations'' (as that term is defined in Executive Order 

12866) and determining whether and how such regulations could be made 

more effective and less burdensome. Additional information about 

Executive Order 13563, and the work that agencies have done to comply 

with the Order, can be found at http://www.whitehouse.gov/21stcenturygov/actions/21st-century-regulatory-system.

    The Office, in its capacity as an agency within DOC, has developed 

a preliminary plan for the review of its existing significant 

regulations, which is part of DOC's more general preliminary plan that 

was prepared in accordance with Executive Order 13563. DOC's 

preliminary plan, which includes the process by which the Office will 

engage in a retrospective analysis of its existing significant 

regulations and a list of candidate regulations for review over the 

next two years, was submitted to the Office of Management and Budget 

(OMB) on May 18, 2011 in accordance with Executive Order 13563. The 

plan has been made available to the public on DOC's Web site at http://www.commerce.gov and on the White House Web site at http://www.whitehouse.gov/21stcenturygov/actions/21st-century-regulatory-system.

    The Office is now working on finalizing the portions of this 

preliminary plan that relate to the Office. When the Office was 

preparing its preliminary plan, it solicited public comments with its 

March 22, 2011 Federal Register notice, and those comments were 

valuable in developing the plan. Now that the Office is working on 

finalizing the plan, the Office seeks further comment from the public 

on the portions of DOC's preliminary plan that relate to the Office.

    The Office welcomes any comments the public believes might be 

helpful as it works on finalizing the plan. In particular, comments on 

ways in which the plan can be improved or best implemented are 

encouraged, as are comments on the list of candidate regulations for 

review that is set forth in the plan and any suggestions for additional 

regulations that should be considered for review.

    In order to comply with OMB guidance that directs plans to be 

finalized within 80 days of their publication, the Office asks that 

comments on the plan be submitted by September 6, 2011. The Office will 

continue to receive and consider comments submitted after that date. 

The Office plans to continue receiving comments on the plan, and 

considering such comments as it implements and refines the plan, on a 

going-forward basis. The Office will maintain a Web page (located at 

http://www.uspto.gov/ip/rules/lookback.jsp) that will provide 

information about the plan, the Office's progress in implementing the 

plan and reviewing regulations, and the comments the Office has 

received on the plan. Comments can be submitted to the Office at any 

time through that web page, even after the expiration of the comment 

period set forth in this notice.

    While the Office welcomes and values all comments from the public 

in response to this request, these comments do not bind the Office to 

any further actions related to the comments, and the Office may not 

respond to every comment that is submitted.



    Dated: June 29, 2011.

David J. Kappos,

Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of 

the United States Patent and Trademark Office.

[FR Doc. 2011-16965 Filed 7-6-11; 8:45 am]

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