[Federal Register Volume 88, Number 105 (Thursday, June 1, 2023)]
[Notices]
[Pages 35843-35844]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2023-11710]


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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 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 March 8, 2023 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.
    Needs and Uses: The Trademark Law Treaty Implementation Act of 1998 
\1\ (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. The 
USPTO conducted the study and presented a report to the House and 
Senate Judiciary Committees on November 30, 1999. One of the 
recommendations made in the report was that the USPTO create and 
maintain an accurate and comprehensive database containing the official 
insignia of all federally and state-recognized Native American tribes. 
In accordance with this recommendation, the Senate Committee on 
Appropriations directed the USPTO to create this database. The USPTO 
published the final procedures for establishing and maintaining the 
tribal insignia database in the Federal Register on August 24, 2001 (66 
FR 44603).\2\
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    \1\ https://www.uspto.gov/trademark/laws-regulations/trademark-law-treaty-implementation-act.
    \2\ https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2001/08/24/01-21479/establishment-of-a-database-containing-the-official-insignia-of-federally-and-state-recognized.
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    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 database, included 
within Trademark Electronic Search System (TESS),\3\ is available to 
the public on the USPTO website, and includes an online help program 
for using the system. More information about the program is available 
on the website at https://www.uspto.gov/trademarks/laws/native-american-tribal-insignia.
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    \3\ https://www.uspto.gov/trademarks-application-process/search-trademark-database.
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    Tribes are not required to request that their official insignia be 
included in the database. 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. The inclusion of 
an official tribal insignia in the database does not create any legal 
presumption of validity or priority, does not carry any of the benefits 
of federal trademark registration, and is not a determination as to 
whether a particular insignia would be allowed or refused registration

[[Page 35844]]

as a trademark pursuant to 15 U.S.C. 1051 et seq.
    Requests from federally recognized tribes to enter an official 
insignia into the database must be submitted in writing and include: 
(1) a depiction of the insignia, including the name of the tribe and 
the address for correspondence; (2) a copy of the tribal resolution 
adopting the insignia in question as the official insignia of the 
tribe; and (3) a statement, signed by an official with authority to 
bind the tribe, confirming that the insignia included with the request 
is identical to the official insignia adopted by the tribal resolution.
    Requests from state-recognized tribes must also be in writing and 
include each of the three items described above that are submitted by 
federally recognized tribes. Additionally, requests from state-
recognized tribes must include either: (a) a document issued by a state 
official that evidences the state's determination that the entity is a 
Native American tribe; or (b) a citation to a state statute designating 
the entity as a Native American tribe.
    The USPTO enters insignia that have been properly submitted by 
federally or state-recognized Native American tribes into the database 
and does not investigate whether the insignia is actually the official 
insignia of the tribe making the request.
    This information collection includes the information needed by the 
USPTO to enter an official insignia for a federally or state-recognized 
Native American tribe into a database of such insignia. No forms are 
associated with this information collection.
    Forms: None.
    Type of Review: Extension and revision of a currently approved 
information collection.
    Affected Public: State, Local, and Tribal Governments.
    Respondent's Obligation: Required to obtain or retain benefits.
    Frequency: On occasion.
    Estimated Number of Annual Respondents: 5 respondents.
    Estimated Number of Annual Responses: 5 responses.
    Estimated Time per Response: The USPTO estimates that the responses 
in this information collection will take respondents approximately 1 
hour 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: 5 hours.
    Estimated Total Annual Respondent Non-Hourly Cost Burden: $19.
    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 information request'' in the subject line of the message.
     Mail: Justin Isaac, Office of the Chief Administrative 
Officer, United States Patent and Trademark Office, 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. 2023-11710 Filed 5-31-23; 8:45 am]
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