[Federal Register Volume 82, Number 54 (Wednesday, March 22, 2017)]
[Notices]
[Pages 14698-14699]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2017-05575]


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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

Patent and Trademark Office


Submission for OMB Review; Comment Request; Native American 
Tribal Insignia Database

    The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) will submit

[[Page 14699]]

to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for clearance the 
following proposal for collection of information under the provisions 
of the Paperwork Reduction Act (44 U.S.C. Chapter 35).
    Agency: United States Patent and Trademark Office, Commerce.
    Title: Native American Tribal Insignia Database.
    OMB Control Number: 0651-0048.
    Form Number(s): None.
    Type of Request: Extension of a currently approved collection.
    Number of Respondents: 4 responses per year.
    Average Hours per Response: The USPTO estimates that a recognized 
Native American tribe will require an average of 1 hour to complete a 
request to record an official insignia, including time to prepare the 
appropriate documents and submit the completed request to the USPTO.
    Burden Hours: 4 hours.
    Cost Burden: $4.80.
    Needs and Uses: The Trademark Law Treaty Implementation Act of 1998 
(Pub. L. 105-330, sec. 302, 112 Stat. 3071) required the USPTO to study 
issues surrounding the protection of the official insignia of federally 
and state-recognized Native American tribes under trademark law. At the 
direction of Congress, the USPTO created a database containing the 
official insignia of recognized Native American tribes.
    The USPTO database of official tribal insignias provides evidence 
of what a federally or state-recognized Native American tribe considers 
to be its official insignia. The database thereby assists trademark 
examining attorneys in their examination of applications for trademark 
registration by serving as a reference for determining the 
registrability of a mark that may falsely suggest a connection to the 
official insignia of a Native American tribe. The entry of an official 
insignia into the database does not confer any rights to the tribe that 
submitted the insignia, and entry is not the legal equivalent of 
registering the insignia as a trademark under 15 U.S.C. 1051 et seq.
    This information collection is used by the USPTO to enter an 
official insignia submitted by a federally or state-recognized Native 
American tribe into the database. There are no forms associated with 
this collection.
    Frequency: On occasion.
    Respondent's Obligation: Required to obtain or retain benefits.
    OMB Desk Officer: Nicholas A. Fraser, email: 
[email protected].
    Once submitted, the request will be publicly available in 
electronic format through reginfo.gov. Follow the instructions to view 
Department of Commerce collections currently under review by OMB.
    Further information can be obtained by:
     Email: [email protected]. Include ``0651-
0048 copy request'' in the subject line of the message.
     Mail: Marcie Lovett, Records and Information Governance 
Division Director, Office of the Chief Technology Officer, United 
States Patent and Trademark Office, P.O. Box 1450, Alexandria, VA 
22313-1450.
    Written comments and recommendations for the proposed information 
collection should be sent on or before April 21, 2017 to Nicholas A. 
Fraser, OMB Desk Officer, via email to [email protected], 
or by fax to 202-395-5167, marked to the attention of Nicholas A. 
Fraser.

    Dated: March 10, 2017.
Marcie Lovett,
Director, Records and Information Governance Division, Office of the 
Chief Technology Officer, Office of the Chief Information Officer, 
United States Patent and Trademark Office.
[FR Doc. 2017-05575 Filed 3-21-17; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 3510-16-P