[Federal Register Volume 76, Number 131 (Friday, July 8, 2011)]
[Notices]
[Pages 40339-40341]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2011-17077]


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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

Patent and Trademark Office


Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH) Program

ACTION: Proposed collection; comment request.

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SUMMARY: The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), as part 
of its continuing effort to reduce paperwork and respondent burden, 
invites the general public and other Federal agencies to take this 
opportunity to comment on the continuing information collection, as 
required by the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, Public Law 104-13 (44 
U.S.C. 3506(c)(2)(A)).

DATES: Written comments must be submitted on or before September 6, 
2011.

ADDRESSES: You may submit comments by any of the following methods:
     E-mail: [email protected]. Include ``0651-
0058 comment'' in the subject line of the message.
     Mail: Susan K. Fawcett, Records Officer, Office of the 
Chief Information Officer, United States Patent and Trademark Office, 
P.O. Box 1450, Alexandria, VA 22313-1450.
     Federal Rulemaking Portal: http://www.regulations.gov.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Requests for additional information 
should be directed to Magdalen Greenlief, Office of the Associate 
Commissioner for Patent Examination Policy, United States Patent and 
Trademark Office, P.O. Box 1450, Alexandria, VA 22313-1450; by 
telephone at 571-272-8850; or by e-mail to 
[email protected]. Additional information about this 
collection is also available at http://www.reginfo.gov under 
``Information Collection Review.''

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

I. Abstract

    The Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH) pilot program was originally 
established between the United States Patent and Trademark Office 
(USPTO) and the Japan Patent Office (JPO) on July 3, 2006. The USPTO 
and the JPO agreed at the November 2007 Trilateral Conference to fully 
implement the PPH program on a permanent basis starting on January 4, 
2008.
    The USPTO entered into a PPH pilot program with the United Kingdom 
Intellectual Property Office (UKIPO) on September 4, 2007. Since then, 
additional PPH pilot programs have

[[Page 40340]]

been established between the USPTO and the intellectual property 
offices of several other countries. Some of the pilot programs, such as 
those with Japan, Canada, and South Korea, have become permanent.
    The PPH program allows applicants whose claims are determined to be 
patentable in the office of first filing to have the corresponding 
application that is filed in the office of second filing be advanced 
out of turn for examination. At the same time, the PPH program allows 
the office of second filing to exploit the search and examination 
results of the office of first filing, which increases examination 
efficiency and improves patent quality. The PCT-PPH pilot program is an 
expansion to the PPH program based on the framework of the Patent 
Cooperation Treaty (PCT). Information collected for the PCT is approved 
under OMB control number 0651-0021.
    PPH agreements streamline the patent system by allowing patent 
examiners to avail themselves of the work product from other 
participating patent offices. Originally, the PPH program was limited 
to the utilization of search and examination results of national 
applications between cross filings under the Paris Convention. The 
newer PCT-PPH agreements have greatly expanded the potential of the PPH 
program by permitting participating patent offices to draw upon the 
positive results of the PCT work product from another participating 
office. The PCT-PPH pilot program uses international written opinions 
and international preliminary examination reports developed within the 
framework of the PCT, thereby making the PPH program available to a 
larger number of applicants.
    The forms in this collection allow participants to file a request 
in a corresponding U.S. application and petition to make the U.S. 
application special under the PPH or PCT-PPH program. The PPH forms 
collect similar data; however, there is a unique form for each 
participant. This collection includes forms for these current PPH 
programs with the USPTO: Japan Patent Office (JPO), United Kingdom 
Intellectual Property Office (UKIPO), Canadian Intellectual Property 
Office (CIPO), Danish Patent and Trademark Office (DKPTO), European 
Patent Office (EPO), Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO), 
Intellectual Property Office of Australia (IPAU), Intellectual Property 
Office of Singapore (IPOS), German Patent and Trade Mark Office (DPMA), 
National Board of Patents and Registration of Finland (NBPR), Russian 
Patent Office (ROSPATENT), Hungarian Patent Office (HPO), Spanish 
Patent and Trademark Office (SPTO), Austrian Patent Office (APO), and 
the Mexican Institute of Industrial Property (IMPI). This collection 
also includes forms for these upcoming PPH programs that are being 
planned with the USPTO: Israeli Patent Office, State Intellectual 
Property Office of the P.R.C. (SIPO), Instituto Nacional da Propriedade 
Industrial (INPI), and the Taiwan Intellectual Property Office (TIPO).
    This collection includes forms for these current PCT-PPH pilot 
programs with the USPTO: EPO, JPO, KIPO, APO, ROSPATENT, SPTO, IPAU, 
NBPR, the Swedish Patent and Registration Office (PRV), and in U.S. 
applications where the USPTO was the International Searching Authority 
(ISA) or International Preliminary Examining Authority (IPEA). This 
collection also includes forms for these upcoming PCT-PPH pilot 
programs that are being planned with the USPTO: CIPO, SIPO, and the 
Nordic Patent Institute (NPI).

II. Method of Collection

    Requests to participate in the PPH programs must be submitted 
online using EFS-Web, the USPTO's Web-based electronic filing system.

III. Data

    OMB Number: 0651-0058.
    Form Number(s): PTO/SB/20AT/AU/BR/CA/CN/DE/DK, PTO/SB/20EP/ES/FI/
HU/IL/JP/KR/MX/RU/SG/TW/UK, and PTO/SB/20PCT-AT/PCT-AU/PCT-CA/PCT-CN/
PCT-EP/PCT-ES/PCT-FI/PCT-JP/PCT-KR/PCT-RU/PCT-SE/PCT-US/PCT-XN.
    Type of Review: Revision of a currently approved collection.
    Affected Public: Individuals or households; businesses or other 
for-profits; and not-for-profit institutions.
    Estimated Number of Respondents: 3,700 responses per year. The 
USPTO estimates that approximately 10% of these responses will be from 
small entities.
    Estimated Time per Response: The USPTO estimates that it will take 
the public approximately two hours to gather the necessary information, 
prepare the appropriate form, and submit a completed request to the 
USPTO.
    Estimated Total Annual Respondent Burden Hours: 7,400 hours.
    Estimated Total Annual Respondent Cost Burden: $2,405,000. The 
USPTO expects that the information in this collection will be prepared 
by attorneys. Using the professional rate of $325 per hour for 
attorneys in private firms, the USPTO estimates that the total annual 
respondent cost burden for this collection will be approximately 
$2,405,000 per year.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                                  Estimated time     Estimated       Estimated
                              Item                                 for response       annual       annual burden
                                                                      (hours)        responses         hours
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Request for Participation in the PPH Program Between the JPO and               2             500           1,000
 the USPTO (PTO/SB/20JP)........................................
Request for Participation in the PPH Pilot Program Between the                 2             100             200
 UKIPO and the USPTO (PTO/SB/20UK)..............................
Request for Participation in the PPH Program Between the CIPO                  2             100             200
 and the USPTO (PTO/SB/20CA)....................................
Request for Participation in the PPH Program Between the KIPO                  2             200             400
 and the USPTO (PTO/SB/20KR)....................................
Request for Participation in the PPH Pilot Program Between the                 2             100             200
 IPAU and the USPTO (PTO/SB/20AU)...............................
Request for Participation in the PPH Pilot Program Between the                 2             100             200
 EPO and the USPTO (PTO/SB/20EP)................................
Request for Participation in the PPH Pilot Program Between the                 2             100             200
 DKPTO and the USPTO (PTO/SB/20DK)..............................
Request for Participation in the PPH Pilot Program Between the                 2             100             200
 IPOS and the USPTO (PTO/SB/20SG)...............................
Request for Participation in the PPH Pilot Program Between the                 2             100             200
 DPMA and the USPTO (PTO/SB/20DE)...............................

[[Page 40341]]

 
Request for Participation in the PPH Pilot Program Between the                 2             100             200
 NBFR and the USPTO (PTO/SB/20FI)...............................
Request for Participation in the PPH Pilot Program Between                     2             100             200
 ROSPATENT and the USPTO (PTO/SB/20RU)..........................
Request for Participation in the PPH Pilot Program Between the                 2             100             200
 HPO and the USPTO (PTO/SB/20HU)................................
Request for Participation in the PPH Pilot Program Between the                 2             100             200
 SPTO and the USPTO (PTO/SB/20ES)...............................
Request for Participation in the PPH Pilot Program Between the                 2             100             200
 APO and the USPTO (PTO/SB/20AT)................................
Request for Participation in the PPH Pilot Program Between the                 2             100             200
 Israeli Patent Office and the USPTO (PTO/SB/20IL)..............
Request for Participation in the PPH Pilot Program Between the                 2             100             200
 IMPI and the USPTO (PTO/SB/20MX)...............................
Request for Participation in the PPH Pilot Program Between the                 2             100             200
 SIPO and the USPTO (PTO/SB/20CN)...............................
Request for Participation in the PPH Pilot Program Between the                 2             100             200
 INPI and the USPTO (PTO/SB/20BR)...............................
Request for Participation in the PPH Pilot Program Between the                 2             100             200
 TIPO and the USPTO (PTO/SB/20TW)...............................
Request for Participation in the PCT-PPH Pilot Program Between                 2             100             200
 the EPO and the USPTO (PTO/SB/20PCT-EP)........................
Request for Participation in the PCT-PPH Pilot Program Between                 2             100             200
 the JPO and the USPTO (PTO/SB/20PCT-JP)........................
Request for Participation in the PCT-PPH Pilot Program Between                 2             100             200
 the KIPO and the USPTO (PTO/SB/20PCT-KR).......................
Request for Participation in the PCT-PPH Pilot Program Between                 2             100             200
 the APO and the USPTO (PTO/SB/20PCT-AT)........................
Request for Participation in the PCT-PPH Pilot Program Between                 2             100             200
 the ROSPATENT and the USPTO (PTO/SB/20PCT-RU)..................
Request for Participation in the PCT-PPH Pilot Program Between                 2             100             200
 the SPTO and the USPTO (PTO/SB/20PCT-ES).......................
Request for Participation in the PCT-PPH Pilot Program Between                 2             100             200
 the IPAU and the USPTO (PTO/SB/20PCT-AU).......................
Request for Participation in the PCT-PPH Pilot Program Between                 2             100             200
 the CIPO and the USPTO (PTO/SB/20PCT-CA).......................
Request for Participation in the PCT-PPH Pilot Program Between                 2             100             200
 the NBPR and the USPTO (PTO/SB/20PCT-FI).......................
Request for Participation in the PCT-PPH Pilot Program Between                 2             100             200
 the PRV and the USPTO (PTO/SB/20PCT-SE)........................
Request for Participation in the PCT-PPH Pilot Program Between                 2             100             200
 the NPI and the USPTO (PTO/SB/20PCT-XN)........................
Request for Participation in the PCT-PPH Pilot Program Between                 2             100             200
 the SIPO and the USPTO (PTO/SB/20PCT-CN).......................
Request for Participation in the PCT-PPH Pilot Program in a U.S.               2             100             200
 Application Where the USPTO was the ISA or IPEA (PTO/SB/20PCT-
 US)............................................................
                                                                 -----------------------------------------------
    Totals......................................................  ..............           3,700           7,400
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    Estimated Total Annual Non-hour Respondent Cost Burden: $0. There 
are no capital start-up, maintenance, or postage costs associated with 
this collection. This collection also has no filing fees or 
recordkeeping costs.

IV. Request for Comments

    Comments are invited on: (a) Whether the proposed collection of 
information is necessary for the proper performance of the functions of 
the agency, including whether the information shall have practical 
utility; (b) the accuracy of the agency's estimate of the burden 
(including hours and cost) of the proposed collection of information; 
(c) ways to enhance the quality, utility, and clarity of the 
information to be collected; and (d) ways to minimize the burden of the 
collection of information on respondents, e.g., the use of automated 
collection techniques or other forms of information technology.
    Comments submitted in response to this notice will be summarized or 
included in the request for OMB approval of this information 
collection; they also will become a matter of public record.

    Dated: July 1, 2011.
Susan K. Fawcett,
Records Officer, USPTO, Office of the Chief Information Officer.
[FR Doc. 2011-17077 Filed 7-7-11; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3510-16-P