[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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