[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

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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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