[Federal Register Volume 72, Number 197 (Friday, October 12, 2007)]
[Notices]
[Pages 58060-58062]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: E7-20136]
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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
Patent and Trademark Office
Native American Tribal Insignia Database
ACTION: Proposed collection; comment request.
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SUMMARY: The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), as part
of its continuing effort to reduce paperwork and respondent burden,
invites the general public and other Federal agencies to take this
opportunity to comment on the continuing information collection, as
required by the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, Public Law 104-13 (44
U.S.C. 3506(c)(2)(A)).
DATES: Written comments must be submitted on or before December 11,
2007.
ADDRESSES: You may submit comments by any of the following methods:
E-mail: [email protected]. Include ``0651-0048 comment'' in
the subject line of the message.
Fax: 571-273-0112, marked to the attention of Susan Fawcett.
Mail: Susan K. Fawcett, Records Officer, Office of the Chief
Information Officer, Customer Information Services Group, Public
Information Services Division, U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, P.O.
Box 1450, Alexandria, VA 22313-1450.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Requests for additional information
should be directed to Sharon Marsh, Deputy Commissioner for Trademark
Examination Policy, Office of the Commissioner for Trademarks, United
States Patent and Trademark Office, P.O. Box 1451, Alexandria, VA
22313-1451, by telephone at 571-272-8900, or by e-mail at
[email protected].
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
I. Abstract
The Trademark Law Treaty Implementation Act (Pub. L. 105-330, Sec.
302, 112 Stat. 3071 (1998)) required the United States Patent and
Trademark Office (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
[[Page 58061]]
recommendation, the Senate Committee on Appropriations directed the
USPTO to create this database.
The USPTO database of official tribal insignias assists trademark
attorneys in their examination of applications for trademark
registration. Additionally, the database provides evidence of what a
federally-or state-recognized Native American tribe considers to be its
official insignia. The database serves as a reference for examining
attorneys when determining the registrability of a mark that may be
similar to the official insignia of a Native American tribe. The
database is also available to the public on the USPTO Web site.
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 refused registration 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 above 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 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 collection.
II. Method of Collection
By mail or facsimile to the USPTO.
III. Data
OMB Number: 0651-0048.
Form Number(s): None.
Type of Review: Revision of a currently approved collection.
Affected Public: Tribal governments.
Estimated Number of Respondents: 15 responses per year.
Estimated Time per Response: The USPTO estimates that a federally-
recognized Native American tribe will require an average of 10 minutes
(0.17 hours) to complete a request to record an official insignia and
that a state-recognized Native American tribe will require an average
of 12 minutes (0.20 hours) to complete a request to record an official
insignia, including time to gather the necessary information, prepare
the appropriate documents, and submit the completed request.
Estimated Total Annual Respondent Burden Hours: 3 hours.
Estimated Total Annual Respondent Cost Burden: $159 per year. The
USPTO expects that the information in this collection will be prepared
by both paraprofessionals and clerical staff. The estimated rate of $53
per hour used in this submission is an average of the paraprofessional
rate of $90 per hour and the clerical rate of $15 per hour. Using this
rate of $53 per hour, the USPTO estimates that the respondent cost
burden for submitting the information in this collection will be $159
per year.
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Estimated time Estimated Estimated
Item for response annual annual burden
(minutes) responses hours
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Request to Record an Official Insignia of a Federally-Recognized 10 10 2
Tribe..........................................................
Request to Record an Official Insignia of a State-Recognized 12 5 1
Tribe..........................................................
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Total....................................................... .............. 15 3
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Estimated Total Annual Non-hour Respondent Cost Burden: $14 per
year. There are no capital start-up, maintenance, or recordkeeping
costs associated with this information collection. There are also no
filing fees for submitting a tribal insignia for recording. However,
this collection does have annual (non-hour) costs in the form of
postage costs.
Customers may incur postage costs when submitting the information
in this collection to the USPTO by mail. The USPTO estimates that the
average first-class postage cost for a submission mailed through the
U.S. Postal Service will be 92 cents and that up to 15 submissions will
be mailed to the USPTO per year. The total estimated postage cost for
this collection is approximately $14 per year.
The total non-hour respondent cost burden for this collection in
the form of postage costs is $14 per year.
IV. Request for Comments
Comments are invited on: (a) Whether the proposed collection of
information is necessary for the proper performance of the functions of
the agency, including whether the information shall have practical
utility; (b) the accuracy of the agency's estimate of the burden
(including hours and cost) of the proposed collection of information;
(c) ways to enhance the quality, utility, and clarity of the
information to be collected; and (d) ways to minimize the burden of the
collection of information on respondents, e.g., the use of automated
collection techniques or other forms of information technology.
Comments submitted in response to this notice will be summarized or
included in the request for OMB approval of this information
collection; they also will become a matter of public record.
[[Page 58062]]
Dated: October 4, 2007.
Susan K. Fawcett,
Records Officer, USPTO, Office of the Chief Information Officer,
Customer Information Services Group, Public Information Services
Division.
[FR Doc. E7-20136 Filed 10-11-07; 8:45 am]
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