[Federal Register Volume 89, Number 178 (Friday, September 13, 2024)]
[Notices]
[Page 74926]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2024-20807]
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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; Patent Reexaminations, Supplemental Examinations, and Post
Patent Submissions
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 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 July 8, 2024 during a 60-day comment period (89 FR
55927). This notice allows for an additional 30 days for public
comment.
Agency: United States Patent and Trademark Office, Department of
Commerce.
Title: Patent Reexaminations, Supplemental Examinations, and Post
Patent Submissions.
OMB Control Number: 0651-0064.
Needs and Uses: The United States Patent and Trademark Office
(USPTO) is required by 35 U.S.C. 131 and 151 to examine applications
and, when appropriate, allow applications and issue them as patents.
Chapter 30 of title 35 U.S.C. provides that any person at any time may
file a request for reexamination by the USPTO of any claim of a patent
on the basis of prior art cited under the provisions of 35 U.S.C. 301.
Once initiated, the reexamination proceedings under Chapter 30 are
substantially ex parte and do not permit input from third parties. The
regulations outlining ex parte reexaminations are found at 37 CFR
1.510-1.570. The purpose of this information collection is to
facilitate requests for ex parte reexamination and supplemental
examination, to facilitate prosecution of reexamination and to ensure
that the associated documentation is submitted to the USPTO, and to
permit relevant post-patent prior art and claim scope information to be
entered into a patent file.
35 U.S.C. 257 permits a patent owner to request supplemental
examination of a patent by the USPTO to consider, reconsider, or
correct information believed to be relevant to the patent. The
regulations outlining supplemental examination are found at 37 CFR
1.601-1.625.
The Leahy-Smith America Invents Act terminated inter partes
reexamination effective September 16, 2012. However, inter partes
reexamination proceedings based on inter partes reexamination requests
filed before September 16, 2012, continue to be prosecuted. Therefore,
this collection continues to include items related to the prosecution
of inter partes reexamination proceedings. The regulations outlining
inter partes reexaminations are found at 37 CFR 1.902-1.959.
The provisions of 35 U.S.C. 301 and 37 CFR 1.501 govern the ability
of a person to submit into the file of an issued patent (1) prior art
consisting of patents or printed publications which the person making
the submission believes to have a bearing on the patentability of any
claim of the issued patent and (2) statements of the owner of the
issued patent filed in a proceeding before a federal court or the USPTO
in which the owner of the issued patent took a position on the scope of
any claim of the issued patent.
Thus, the items included in this collection cover (1) requests for
ex parte reexamination, (2) requests for supplemental examination, (3)
information that may be submitted by patent owners and third-party
requesters in relation to the prosecution of an ex parte or inter
partes reexamination proceeding, (4) information submitted by the
public to aid in ascertaining the patentability and/or scope of the
claims of the issued patent, and (5) information submitted by patent
owners regarding a position taken before the USPTO or a federal court
regarding the scope of any claim in their issued patent. The USPTO's
use of the statements of the patent owners ((5) above) will be limited
to determining the meaning of a patent claim in ex parte reexamination
proceedings that already have been ordered and in inter partes review
and post grant review proceedings that already have been instituted.
Forms: (SB = Specimen Book):
PTO/SB/42 (37 CFR 1.501 Information Disclosure Citation in a
Patent)
PTO/SB/57 (Request for Ex Parte Reexamination Transmittal
Form)
PTO/SB/59 (Request for Supplemental Examination Transmittal
Form)
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: 874 respondents.
Estimated Number of Annual Responses: 890 responses.
Estimated Time per Response: The USPTO estimates that the responses
in this information collection will take the public approximately
between 30 minutes (0.5 hours) and 55 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: 25,714 hours.
Estimated Total Annual Respondent Non-hourly Cost Burden:
$3,680,879.
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, 0651-0064.
Further information can be obtained by:
Email: [email protected]. Include ``0651-
0064 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. 2024-20807 Filed 9-12-24; 8:45 am]
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