[Federal Register Volume 88, Number 72 (Friday, April 14, 2023)]
[Notices]
[Pages 23008-23010]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2023-07881]
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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; Secrecy and License To Export
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 comment on this
information collection renewal, 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 December 27, 2022 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: Secrecy and License to Export.
OMB Control Number: 0651-0034.
Needs and Uses: In the interest of national security, patent laws
and regulations place certain limitations on the disclosure of
information contained in patents and patent applications and on the
filing of applications for patents in foreign countries.
A. Secrecy Orders
Whenever the publication or disclosure of an invention by the
publication of an application or by the granting of a patent is, in the
opinion of
[[Page 23009]]
the head of an interested Government agency, determined to be
detrimental to national security, the Commissioner for Patents at the
United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) must issue a secrecy
order and withhold the publication of a patent application and the
grant of a patent for such period as the national interest requires. A
patent will not be issued on the application, nor will the application
be published, as long as the secrecy order is in force. If a secrecy
order is applied to an international application, the application will
not be forwarded to the International Bureau as long as the secrecy
order is in effect.
The Commissioner for Patents can issue three types of secrecy
orders, each of a different scope. The first type, Secrecy Order and
Permit for Foreign Filing in Certain Countries, is intended to permit
the widest utilization of the technical data in the patent application
while still controlling any publication or disclosure that would result
in an unlawful exportation. The second type, the Secrecy Order and
Permit for Disclosing Classified Information, is to treat classified
technical data presented in a patent application in the same manner as
any other classified material. The third type of secrecy order is used
where the other types of orders do not apply, including orders issued
by direction of agencies other than the Department of Defense.
Under the provision of 35 U.S.C. 181, a secrecy order remains in
effect for a period of one year from its date of issuance. A secrecy
order may be renewed for additional periods of not more than one year
upon notice by a government agency that the national interest continues
to so require. The applicant is notified of such renewal.
When the USPTO places a secrecy order on a patent application, the
regulations authorize the applicant to petition the USPTO for permits
to allow disclosure, modification, or rescission of the secrecy order,
or to obtain a general or group permit. In each of these circumstances,
the petition is forwarded to the appropriate defense agency for
decision. Also, the Commissioner for Patents at the USPTO may rescind
any order upon notification by the heads of the departments and the
chief officers of the agencies who caused the order to be issued that
the disclosure of the invention is no longer deemed detrimental to the
national security.
Unless expressly ordered otherwise, action on the application and
prosecution by the applicant will proceed during the time the
application is under secrecy order to the point indicated in 37 CFR
5.3. See the Manual of Patent Examining Procedure (MPEP) Section 130
(9th ed., rev. 10.2019, June 2020). For example, prosecution of a
national application under secrecy order may proceed only to the point
where it is found to be in condition for allowance. See 37 CFR 5.3(c).
Prosecution of international applications under secrecy order, on the
other hand, will proceed only to the point before record and search
copies would be transmitted to the international authorities or the
applicant. See 37 CFR 5.3(d). National applications under secrecy order
that come to a final rejection must be appealed or otherwise prosecuted
to avoid abandonment. See 37 CFR 5.3(a). Appeals in such cases must be
completed by the applicant. Unless specifically ordered by the
Commissioner for Patents, these appeals will not be set for hearing
until the secrecy order is removed. See id.
B. Foreign Filing License
In addition, this information collection covers information
gathered with respect to foreign filing licenses. The filing of a
patent application is considered a request for a foreign filing
license. However, in some instances an applicant may need a license for
filing patent applications in foreign countries prior to a filing in
the USPTO or sooner than the anticipated licensing of a pending patent
application.
For such circumstances, this information collection covers
petitions for a foreign filing license either with or without a
corresponding United States application. In addition, this information
collection covers petitions to change the scope of a license and
petitions for a retroactive license for instances when a patent
application is filed through error in a foreign country without the
appropriate filing license.
This information collection includes the information needed by the
USPTO to review the various types of petitions regarding secrecy orders
and foreign filing licenses. This collection of information is required
by 35 U.S.C. 181-183 and 184-186 and administered by the USPTO through
37 CFR 5.1-5.5, 5.11-5.15, and 5.18-5.25.
The 60-day notice was published on December 27, 2022. Since that
time, two adjustments have been made in the information collection. In
response to the Unleashing American Innovators Act of 2022, USPTO
reduced eight fees included within this information collection. This
reduction was submitted to OMB and approved on 3/28/2023. These fee
adjustments are included in the non-hourly cost burdens reflected in
the 30-day notice, resulting in a reduction in the Estimated Total
Annual Respondent Non-Hourly Cost Burden than what appeared in the 60-
day notice. Additionally, the two respondent types published in the 60-
day notice have been combined into only the private sector; which
provides a more accurate estimate of the filers associated with this
information collection.
Form Number(s): None.
Type of Review: Extension and revision of a currently approved
information collection.
Affected Public: Private sector.
Respondent's Obligation: Required to obtain or retain benefits.
Frequency: On occasion.
Estimated Number of Annual Respondents: 7,524 respondents.
Estimated Number of Annual Responses: 7,524 responses.
Estimated Time per Response: The USPTO estimates that the responses
in this information collection will take respondents approximately
between 30 minutes (0.5 hours) and 4 hours to complete. This includes
the time to gather the necessary information, create the document, and
submit the completed request to the USPTO.
Estimated Total Annual Respondent Burden Hours: 4,503 hours.
Estimated Total Annual Respondent Non-Hourly Cost Burden:
$1,446,446.
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 0651-0034.
Further information can be obtained by:
Email: [email protected]. Include ``0651-
0034 information request'' in the subject line of the message.
Mail: Justin Isaac, Office of the Chief Administrative
Officer, United States Patent and Trademark Office,
[[Page 23010]]
P.O. Box 1450, Alexandria, VA 22313-1450.
Justin Isaac,
Information Collections Officer, Office of the Chief Administrative
Officer, United States Patent and Trademark Office.
[FR Doc. 2023-07881 Filed 4-13-23; 8:45 am]
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