[Federal Register Volume 76, Number 131 (Friday, July 8, 2011)]
[Notices]
[Pages 40339-40341]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2011-17077]
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
Patent and Trademark Office
Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH) Program
ACTION: Proposed collection; comment request.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
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 September 6,
2011.
ADDRESSES: You may submit comments by any of the following methods:
E-mail: [email protected]. Include ``0651-
0058 comment'' in the subject line of the message.
Mail: Susan K. Fawcett, Records Officer, Office of the
Chief Information Officer, United States Patent and Trademark Office,
P.O. Box 1450, Alexandria, VA 22313-1450.
Federal Rulemaking Portal: http://www.regulations.gov.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Requests for additional information
should be directed to Magdalen Greenlief, Office of the Associate
Commissioner for Patent Examination Policy, United States Patent and
Trademark Office, P.O. Box 1450, Alexandria, VA 22313-1450; by
telephone at 571-272-8850; or by e-mail to
[email protected]. Additional information about this
collection is also available at http://www.reginfo.gov under
``Information Collection Review.''
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
I. Abstract
The Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH) pilot program was originally
established between the United States Patent and Trademark Office
(USPTO) and the Japan Patent Office (JPO) on July 3, 2006. The USPTO
and the JPO agreed at the November 2007 Trilateral Conference to fully
implement the PPH program on a permanent basis starting on January 4,
2008.
The USPTO entered into a PPH pilot program with the United Kingdom
Intellectual Property Office (UKIPO) on September 4, 2007. Since then,
additional PPH pilot programs have
[[Page 40340]]
been established between the USPTO and the intellectual property
offices of several other countries. Some of the pilot programs, such as
those with Japan, Canada, and South Korea, have become permanent.
The PPH program allows applicants whose claims are determined to be
patentable in the office of first filing to have the corresponding
application that is filed in the office of second filing be advanced
out of turn for examination. At the same time, the PPH program allows
the office of second filing to exploit the search and examination
results of the office of first filing, which increases examination
efficiency and improves patent quality. The PCT-PPH pilot program is an
expansion to the PPH program based on the framework of the Patent
Cooperation Treaty (PCT). Information collected for the PCT is approved
under OMB control number 0651-0021.
PPH agreements streamline the patent system by allowing patent
examiners to avail themselves of the work product from other
participating patent offices. Originally, the PPH program was limited
to the utilization of search and examination results of national
applications between cross filings under the Paris Convention. The
newer PCT-PPH agreements have greatly expanded the potential of the PPH
program by permitting participating patent offices to draw upon the
positive results of the PCT work product from another participating
office. The PCT-PPH pilot program uses international written opinions
and international preliminary examination reports developed within the
framework of the PCT, thereby making the PPH program available to a
larger number of applicants.
The forms in this collection allow participants to file a request
in a corresponding U.S. application and petition to make the U.S.
application special under the PPH or PCT-PPH program. The PPH forms
collect similar data; however, there is a unique form for each
participant. This collection includes forms for these current PPH
programs with the USPTO: Japan Patent Office (JPO), United Kingdom
Intellectual Property Office (UKIPO), Canadian Intellectual Property
Office (CIPO), Danish Patent and Trademark Office (DKPTO), European
Patent Office (EPO), Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO),
Intellectual Property Office of Australia (IPAU), Intellectual Property
Office of Singapore (IPOS), German Patent and Trade Mark Office (DPMA),
National Board of Patents and Registration of Finland (NBPR), Russian
Patent Office (ROSPATENT), Hungarian Patent Office (HPO), Spanish
Patent and Trademark Office (SPTO), Austrian Patent Office (APO), and
the Mexican Institute of Industrial Property (IMPI). This collection
also includes forms for these upcoming PPH programs that are being
planned with the USPTO: Israeli Patent Office, State Intellectual
Property Office of the P.R.C. (SIPO), Instituto Nacional da Propriedade
Industrial (INPI), and the Taiwan Intellectual Property Office (TIPO).
This collection includes forms for these current PCT-PPH pilot
programs with the USPTO: EPO, JPO, KIPO, APO, ROSPATENT, SPTO, IPAU,
NBPR, the Swedish Patent and Registration Office (PRV), and in U.S.
applications where the USPTO was the International Searching Authority
(ISA) or International Preliminary Examining Authority (IPEA). This
collection also includes forms for these upcoming PCT-PPH pilot
programs that are being planned with the USPTO: CIPO, SIPO, and the
Nordic Patent Institute (NPI).
II. Method of Collection
Requests to participate in the PPH programs must be submitted
online using EFS-Web, the USPTO's Web-based electronic filing system.
III. Data
OMB Number: 0651-0058.
Form Number(s): PTO/SB/20AT/AU/BR/CA/CN/DE/DK, PTO/SB/20EP/ES/FI/
HU/IL/JP/KR/MX/RU/SG/TW/UK, and PTO/SB/20PCT-AT/PCT-AU/PCT-CA/PCT-CN/
PCT-EP/PCT-ES/PCT-FI/PCT-JP/PCT-KR/PCT-RU/PCT-SE/PCT-US/PCT-XN.
Type of Review: Revision of a currently approved collection.
Affected Public: Individuals or households; businesses or other
for-profits; and not-for-profit institutions.
Estimated Number of Respondents: 3,700 responses per year. The
USPTO estimates that approximately 10% of these responses will be from
small entities.
Estimated Time per Response: The USPTO estimates that it will take
the public approximately two hours to gather the necessary information,
prepare the appropriate form, and submit a completed request to the
USPTO.
Estimated Total Annual Respondent Burden Hours: 7,400 hours.
Estimated Total Annual Respondent Cost Burden: $2,405,000. The
USPTO expects that the information in this collection will be prepared
by attorneys. Using the professional rate of $325 per hour for
attorneys in private firms, the USPTO estimates that the total annual
respondent cost burden for this collection will be approximately
$2,405,000 per year.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Estimated time Estimated Estimated
Item for response annual annual burden
(hours) responses hours
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Request for Participation in the PPH Program Between the JPO and 2 500 1,000
the USPTO (PTO/SB/20JP)........................................
Request for Participation in the PPH Pilot Program Between the 2 100 200
UKIPO and the USPTO (PTO/SB/20UK)..............................
Request for Participation in the PPH Program Between the CIPO 2 100 200
and the USPTO (PTO/SB/20CA)....................................
Request for Participation in the PPH Program Between the KIPO 2 200 400
and the USPTO (PTO/SB/20KR)....................................
Request for Participation in the PPH Pilot Program Between the 2 100 200
IPAU and the USPTO (PTO/SB/20AU)...............................
Request for Participation in the PPH Pilot Program Between the 2 100 200
EPO and the USPTO (PTO/SB/20EP)................................
Request for Participation in the PPH Pilot Program Between the 2 100 200
DKPTO and the USPTO (PTO/SB/20DK)..............................
Request for Participation in the PPH Pilot Program Between the 2 100 200
IPOS and the USPTO (PTO/SB/20SG)...............................
Request for Participation in the PPH Pilot Program Between the 2 100 200
DPMA and the USPTO (PTO/SB/20DE)...............................
[[Page 40341]]
Request for Participation in the PPH Pilot Program Between the 2 100 200
NBFR and the USPTO (PTO/SB/20FI)...............................
Request for Participation in the PPH Pilot Program Between 2 100 200
ROSPATENT and the USPTO (PTO/SB/20RU)..........................
Request for Participation in the PPH Pilot Program Between the 2 100 200
HPO and the USPTO (PTO/SB/20HU)................................
Request for Participation in the PPH Pilot Program Between the 2 100 200
SPTO and the USPTO (PTO/SB/20ES)...............................
Request for Participation in the PPH Pilot Program Between the 2 100 200
APO and the USPTO (PTO/SB/20AT)................................
Request for Participation in the PPH Pilot Program Between the 2 100 200
Israeli Patent Office and the USPTO (PTO/SB/20IL)..............
Request for Participation in the PPH Pilot Program Between the 2 100 200
IMPI and the USPTO (PTO/SB/20MX)...............................
Request for Participation in the PPH Pilot Program Between the 2 100 200
SIPO and the USPTO (PTO/SB/20CN)...............................
Request for Participation in the PPH Pilot Program Between the 2 100 200
INPI and the USPTO (PTO/SB/20BR)...............................
Request for Participation in the PPH Pilot Program Between the 2 100 200
TIPO and the USPTO (PTO/SB/20TW)...............................
Request for Participation in the PCT-PPH Pilot Program Between 2 100 200
the EPO and the USPTO (PTO/SB/20PCT-EP)........................
Request for Participation in the PCT-PPH Pilot Program Between 2 100 200
the JPO and the USPTO (PTO/SB/20PCT-JP)........................
Request for Participation in the PCT-PPH Pilot Program Between 2 100 200
the KIPO and the USPTO (PTO/SB/20PCT-KR).......................
Request for Participation in the PCT-PPH Pilot Program Between 2 100 200
the APO and the USPTO (PTO/SB/20PCT-AT)........................
Request for Participation in the PCT-PPH Pilot Program Between 2 100 200
the ROSPATENT and the USPTO (PTO/SB/20PCT-RU)..................
Request for Participation in the PCT-PPH Pilot Program Between 2 100 200
the SPTO and the USPTO (PTO/SB/20PCT-ES).......................
Request for Participation in the PCT-PPH Pilot Program Between 2 100 200
the IPAU and the USPTO (PTO/SB/20PCT-AU).......................
Request for Participation in the PCT-PPH Pilot Program Between 2 100 200
the CIPO and the USPTO (PTO/SB/20PCT-CA).......................
Request for Participation in the PCT-PPH Pilot Program Between 2 100 200
the NBPR and the USPTO (PTO/SB/20PCT-FI).......................
Request for Participation in the PCT-PPH Pilot Program Between 2 100 200
the PRV and the USPTO (PTO/SB/20PCT-SE)........................
Request for Participation in the PCT-PPH Pilot Program Between 2 100 200
the NPI and the USPTO (PTO/SB/20PCT-XN)........................
Request for Participation in the PCT-PPH Pilot Program Between 2 100 200
the SIPO and the USPTO (PTO/SB/20PCT-CN).......................
Request for Participation in the PCT-PPH Pilot Program in a U.S. 2 100 200
Application Where the USPTO was the ISA or IPEA (PTO/SB/20PCT-
US)............................................................
-----------------------------------------------
Totals...................................................... .............. 3,700 7,400
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Estimated Total Annual Non-hour Respondent Cost Burden: $0. There
are no capital start-up, maintenance, or postage costs associated with
this collection. This collection also has no filing fees or
recordkeeping costs.
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.
Dated: July 1, 2011.
Susan K. Fawcett,
Records Officer, USPTO, Office of the Chief Information Officer.
[FR Doc. 2011-17077 Filed 7-7-11; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3510-16-P