[Federal Register Volume 75, Number 37 (Thursday, February 25, 2010)]
[Notices]
[Page 8649]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2010-3882]
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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
United States Patent and Trademark Office
[Docket No.: PTO-P-2010-0001]
Request for Comments on Methodology for Conducting an Independent
Study of the Burden of Patent-Related Paperwork
AGENCY: United States Patent and Trademark Office.
ACTION: Request for comments.
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SUMMARY: The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) retained
ICF International (ICF) to perform an independent study of the burden
of patent-related paperwork, beginning with a report describing the
methodologies for performing such a study (Methodology Report). ICF has
now provided the USPTO with its Methodology Report, in which ICF
recommends methodologies for addressing various topics about estimating
the patent-related burdens imposed on the public as reflected in
information collection requests under the Paperwork Reduction Act of
1995 (PRA). The USPTO is inviting public comment on ICF's Methodology
Report.
DATES: Written comments must be received on or before April 12, 2010.
ADDRESSES: Written comments should be sent by electronic mail message
over the Internet addressed to pra_study_comments@uspto.gov. Comments
may also be submitted by mail addressed to: Mail Stop Comments--
Patents, Commissioner for Patents, P.O. Box 1450, Alexandria, VA 22313-
1450, marked to the attention of Raul Tamayo. Although comments may be
submitted by mail, the USPTO prefers to receive comments via the
Internet.
The written comments will be available for public inspection at the
Office of the Commissioner for Patents, located in Madison East, Tenth
Floor, 600 Dulany Street, Alexandria, Virginia, and will be available
via the USPTO Internet Web site (address: http://www.uspto.gov).
Because comments will be made available for public inspection,
information that is not desired to be made public, such as an address
or phone number, should not be included in the comments.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Raul Tamayo, Legal Advisor, Office of
Patent Legal Administration, Office of the Associate Commissioner for
Patent Examination Policy, at (571) 272-7728.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: While information collection is critical to
evidence-based decisions and informed government operations,
unnecessary paperwork requirements can impose serious burdens on the
public, especially small entities. The PRA requires Federal agencies to
minimize the burden on the public resulting from their information
collections, and to maximize the practical utility of the information
collected.
As part of its continuing effort to improve the accuracy and
transparency of its patent-related PRA burden estimates, the USPTO
retained ICF to perform an independent study having the following three
overall objectives: (1) Develop an independent, publicly vetted,
objectively based estimate of the total cost of paperwork for patent
applicants; (2) develop recommendations for continued improvement in
the accuracy of burden estimates made by the USPTO in the future; and
(3) identify opportunities to reduce applicant burdens. ICF's
Methodology Report provides concise descriptions of the methodologies
it recommends for conducting specific inter-related analyses for
addressing the three overall objectives.
The specific inter-related analyses will be performed independently
by ICF and will provide impartial, fact-based results. The approaches
described in ICF's Methodology Report for performing the analyses were
developed independently by ICF, and are ICF's recommendations regarding
the most efficient and effective ways to complete the analyses and to
meet the overall objectives for the study.
The USPTO is inviting comments from the public regarding ICF's
Methodology Report. The USPTO posted the Methodology Report on its
Internet Web site (http://www.uspto.gov) on February 25, 2010, with a
notice requesting public comment on the Methodology Report and
indicating that written comments must be received on or before April
12, 2010, to receive consideration.
Dated: February 19, 2010.
David J. Kappos,
Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of
the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
[FR Doc. 2010-3882 Filed 2-24-10; 8:45 am]
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