[Federal Register Volume 85, Number 104 (Friday, May 29, 2020)]
[Notices]
[Pages 32361-32362]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2020-11617]


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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

Patent and Trademark Office


Agency Information Collection Activities; Submission to the 
Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for Review and Approval; Comment 
Request; Native American Tribal Insignia Database

    The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) will submit 
the following information collection request to the Office of 
Management and Budget (OMB) for review and clearance in accordance with 
the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, on or after the date of 
publication of this notice. The USPTO invites the general public and 
other Federal agencies to comment on proposed, and continuing 
information collections, which helps the USPTO assess the impact of its 
information collection requirements and minimize the public's reporting 
burden. Public comments were previously requested via the Federal 
Register on March 16, 2020 during a 60-day comment period. This notice 
allows for an additional 30 days for public comments.
    Agency: United States Patent and Trademark Office, Department of 
Commerce.
    Title: Native American Tribal Insignia Database
    OMB Control Number: 0651-0048.
    Form Number(s): None.
    Type of Request: Extension and revision of a currently approved 
information collection.
    Number of Respondents: 5 respondents.
    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

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time to prepare the appropriate documents and submit the completed 
request to the USPTO.
    Burden Hours: 5 hours.
    Estimated Total Annual Non-Hour Respondent Cost Burden: $38.
    Needs and Uses: The Trademark Law Treaty Implementation Act of 1998 
(Pub. L. 105-330, 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. This database 
is available at the USPTO's website, as part of the USPTO's Trademark 
Electronic Search System (TESS). 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.
    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. Section 2(a) of the Trademark Act, 15 
U.S.C. 1052(a), disallows the registration of marks that falsely 
suggest a connection with a non-sponsoring person or institution, 
including a Native American tribe. 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.
    Frequency: On occasion.
    Respondent's Obligation: Required to obtain or retain benefits.
    This information collection request may be viewed at 
www.reginfo.gov. Follow the instructions to view Department of 
Commerce, USPTO information collections currently under review by OMB.
    Written comments and recommendations for this information 
collection should be submitted within 30 days of the publication of 
this notice on the following website www.reginfo.gov/public/do/PRAMain. 
Find this particular information collection by selecting ``Currently 
under 30-day Review--Open for Public Comments'' or by using the search 
function and entering either the title of the information collection or 
the OMB Control Number 0651-0048.
    Further information can be obtained by:
     Email: [email protected]. Include ``0651-
0048 copy request'' in the subject line of the message.
     Mail: Kimberly Hardy, Office of the Chief Administrative 
Officer, United States Patent and Trademark Office, P.O. Box 1450, 
Alexandria, VA 22313-1450.

Kimberly Hardy,
Information Collections Officer, Office of the Chief Administrative 
Officer, United States Patent and Trademark Office.
[FR Doc. 2020-11617 Filed 5-28-20; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 3510-16-P