[Federal Register Volume 89, Number 48 (Monday, March 11, 2024)]
[Notices]
[Pages 17440-17441]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2024-05052]
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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; International Design Application (Hague Agreement)
The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) will submit
the following information collection 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 comments 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 19, 2023 during a 60-day comment period (88 FR 87754). This
notice allows for an additional 30 days for public comments.
Agency: United States Patent and Trademark Office, Department of
Commerce.
Title: International Design Application (Hague Agreement).
OMB Control Number: 0651-0075.
Needs and Uses: The Patent Law Treaties Implementation Act of 2012
\1\ (PLTIA) amends the patent laws to implement the provisions of the
Geneva Act of the Hague Agreement Concerning International Registration
of Industrial Designs (hereinafter ``Hague Agreement'') in title 1, and
the Patent Law Treaty \2\ (PLT) in title 2. The Hague Agreement is an
international agreement that enables an applicant to file a single
international design application which may have the effect of an
application for protection for the design(s) in countries and/or
intergovernmental organizations that are Parties to the Hague Agreement
(the ``Contracting Parties'') designated in the applications. The
United States is a Contracting Party to the Hague Agreement, which took
effect with respect to the United States on May 13, 2015. The Hague
Agreement is
[[Page 17441]]
administrated by the International Bureau (IB) of the World
Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) located in Geneva,
Switzerland.
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\1\ https://www.congress.gov/112/plaws/publ211/PLAW-112publ211.pdf.
\2\ https://wipolex.wipo.int/en/text/288773.
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Under the Hague Agreement, U.S. applicants can file international
design applications in English ``indirectly'' through the United States
Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), which will forward the
applications to the IB or ``directly'' with the IB. An international
design application is subject to the payment of three types of fees:
(1) a basic fee, (2) a publication fee, and (3) in respect of each
Contracting Party where protection is sought, either in a standard or
an individual designation fee. All applications are subject to a three-
level structure of standard fees, which reflects the level of
examination carried out by the Office of a Contracting Party. Also, an
additional fee is required where the application contains a description
that exceeds 100 words. In addition, a transmittal fee is required for
international design applications filed through an office of indirect
filing. Thus, international design applications filed through the USPTO
as an Office of indirect filing are subject to payment of a transmittal
fee for processing and forwarding the international design applications
to the IB. The fees required by the IB may be paid either directly to
the IB or through the USPTO as an office of indirect filing in the
amounts specified on the World Intellectual Property Organization
website. If applicants want to pay the required fees through USPTO as
an office of indirect filing, the fees must be paid no later than the
date of payment of the transmittal fee. The fees will then be forwarded
to the IB. The industrial design or designs will be eligible for
protection in all the Contracting Parties designated by applicants.
The IB ascertains whether the international design application
complies with formal requirements, registers the international design
to the international register, and publishes the international
registration in the International Designs Bulletin. The international
registration contains all of the data of the international application,
any reproduction of the international design, date of the international
registration, number of the international registration, and the
relevant class of the International Classification.
The IB will provide a copy of the publication of the international
registration to each Contracting party designated by the application. A
designated Contracting Party may perform a substantive examination of
the design application. The USPTO will perform a substantive
examination for patentability of the international design application,
as in the case of regular U.S. design applications.
This information collection covers all the necessary information
required for an international design application that is filed through
the USPTO as an Office of indirect filing and those filed directly
through the IB. The information in this collection is used to register
a design patent under the provisions of the Hague Agreement. The
majority of the items are WIPO forms managed by the IB, but this
information collection also includes two forms maintained by the USPTO.
Forms: (WIPO DM = WIPO Dessins et Modeles (design representations);
PTOL = Patent Trademark Office Legal).
PTO 1595: (Recordation Form Cover Sheet)
PTOL 85 Part B (Hague): (Fee(s) Transmittal)
WIPO DM/1 (E): (Application for International Application)
WIPO DM/1/I (E): (Annex I: Oath or Declaration of the Creator
under Rule 8(1)(a)(ii) of the Common Regulations)
WIPO DM/1/III (E): (Annex III: Information on Eligibility for
Protection under Rule 7(5)(g) and Section 408(d) of the Administrative
Instructions)
WIPO DM/1/IV (E): (Annex IV: Reduction of United States
Individual Designation Fee under Section 408(b) of the Administrative
Instructions)
WIPO DM/1/V (E): (Annex V: Supporting Document(s) Concerning
Priority Claim under Article 4 of the Paris Convention--Korean
Intellectual Property Office (KIPO))
WIPO DM/7 (E): (Appointment of a Representative)
Two forms listed above are used by the processes covered in this
information collection, but receive OMB approval and clearance through
other USPTO information collections. These forms are:
PTO 1595--approved through USPTO information collection 0651-
0027 (Recording Assignments)
PTOL 85 Part B (Hague)--approved through USPTO information
collection 0651-0033 (Post Allowance and Refiling)
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: 1,231 respondents.
Estimated Number of Annual Responses: 1,231 responses.
Estimated Time per Response: The USPTO estimates that the responses
in this information collection will take the public approximately
between 15 minutes (0.25 hours) and 6 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: 2,052 hours.
Estimated Total Annual Respondent Non-Hourly Cost Burden:
$3,708,240.
This information collection 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 feature and entering the title of the information collection
or the OMB Control Number, 0651-0075.
Further information can be obtained by:
Email: [email protected]. Include ``0651-
0075 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 2313-1450.
Justin Isaac,
Information Collections Officer, Office of the Chief Administrative
Officer, United States Patent and Trademark Office.
[FR Doc. 2024-05052 Filed 3-8-24; 8:45 am]
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