[Federal Register Volume 83, Number 19 (Monday, January 29, 2018)]
[Notices]
[Pages 4039-4041]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2018-01608]
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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
Patent and Trademark Office
Recording Assignments
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 comment on
proposed and/or continuing information collections, 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 March 30, 2018.
ADDRESSES: Written comments may be submitted by any of the following
methods:
Email: InformationCollection@uspto.gov. Include ``0651-
0027 Recording Assignments'' in the subject line of the message.
Mail: Marcie Lovett, Records Management Division Director,
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 Joyce R. Johnson, Manager, Assignment Division,
Mail Stop 1450, United States Patent and Trademark Office, P.O. Box
1450, Alexandria, VA 22313-1450; by telephone at 703-756-1265; or by
email to Joyce.Johnson@uspto.gov with ``Paperwork'' in the subject
line. Additional information about this collection is also available at
http://www.reginfo.gov under ``Information Collection Review.''
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
I. Abstract
This collection of information is required by 35 U.S.C. 261 and 262
for patents and 15 U.S.C. 1057 and 1060 for trademarks. These statutes
authorize the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) to
record patent and trademark assignment documents, including transfers
of properties (i.e., patents and trademarks), liens, licenses,
assignments of interest, security interests, mergers, and explanations
of transactions or other documents that record the transfer of
ownership of a particular patent or trademark property from one party
to another. Assignments are recorded for applications, patents, and
trademark registrations.
The USPTO administers these statutes through 37 CFR 2.146, 2.171,
and 37 CFR part 3. These rules permit the public, corporations, other
federal agencies, and Government-owned or Government-controlled
corporations to submit patent and trademark assignment documents and
other documents related to title transfers to the USPTO to be recorded.
In accordance with 37 CFR 3.54, the recording of an assignment document
by the USPTO is an administrative action and not a determination of the
validity of the document or of the effect that the document has on the
title to an application, patent, or trademark.
Once the assignment documents are recorded, they are available for
public inspection. The only exceptions are those documents that are
sealed under secrecy orders according to 37 CFR 3.58 or related to
unpublished patent applications maintained in confidence under 35
U.S.C. 122 and 37 CFR 1.14. The public uses these records to conduct
ownership and chain-of-title searches. The public may view these
records either at the USPTO Public Search Facility or at the National
Archives and Records Administration, depending on the date they were
recorded. The public may also search patent and trademark assignment
information online through the USPTO website.
In order to record an assignment document, the respondent must
submit an appropriate cover sheet along with copies of the assignment
document to be recorded. The USPTO provides two paper forms for this
purpose, the Patent Recordation Form Cover Sheet (PTO-1595) and the
Trademark Recordation Form Cover Sheet (PTO-1594), which capture all of
the necessary data for accurately recording various assignment
documents. These forms may be downloaded in PDF format from the USPTO
website (https://www.uspto.gov/forms/pto1595.pdf and https://www.uspto.gov/sites/default/files/pto1594.pdf, respectively).
Customers may also submit assignments online by using the
Electronic Patent Assignment System (EPAS) and the Electronic Trademark
[[Page 4040]]
Assignment System (ETAS), which are available through the USPTO
website. These systems allow customers to fill out the required cover
sheet information online using web-based forms and then attach the
electronic assignment documents to be submitted for recordation.
II. Method of Collection
By mail, facsimile, hand delivery, or electronically to the USPTO.
III. Data
OMB Number: 0651-0027.
IC Instruments: PTO-1594 and 1595, Trademark and Patent Recordation
Form Cover Sheets.
Type of Review: Extension of a Previously Existing Information
Collection.
Affected Public: Individuals or households; businesses or other
for-profits; not-for-profit institutions; the Federal Government; and
state, local or tribal governments.
Estimated Number of Respondents: 596,527 responses per year.
Estimated Time per Response: The USPTO estimates that the response
time for activities related to the recording assignment process will
take approximately 30 minutes (0.5 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 Hour Burden: 298,263.50 hours.
Estimated Total Annual Cost Burden (Hourly): $86,943,810.25 per
year. The USPTO expects that the information in this collection will be
prepared by both attorneys and paralegals. The professional hourly rate
for attorneys is $438 and the professional hourly rate for
paraprofessionals is $145. These rates are established by estimates in
the 2017 Report on the Economic Survey, published by the Committee on
Economics of Legal Practice of the American Intellectual Property Law
Association and the 2017 National Utilization and Compensation Survey
published by the National Association of Legal Assistants (NALA). The
USPTO estimates that the combined rate for respondents will be
approximately $291.50 per hour. Therefore, the estimated total
respondent cost burden for this collection will be approximately
$86,943,810.25 per year.
Table 1-- Respondent Costs
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Estimated
Estimated time Estimated Estimated total annual
IC No. Information collection instrument for response annual annual burden Rate ($/hr) hourly cost
(minutes) responses hours burden
(a) (b) (c) = (a) x (d) (e) = (c) x
(b) (d)
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1.................................... Patent Recordation Form Cover 30 2,498 1,249 $291.50 $364,083.50
Sheet (PTO-1595).
2.................................... Trademark Recordation Form Cover 30 816 408 291.50 118,932.00
Sheet (PTO-1594).
3.................................... Electronic Patent Assignment 30 546,884 273,442 291.50 79,708,343.00
System (EPAS) (PTO-1595).
4.................................... Electronic Trademark Assignment 30 46,329 23,164.50 291.50 6,752,451.75
System (ETAS) (PTO-1594).
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Total............................ ................................. .............. 596,527 262,150 .............. 86,943,810.25
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Estimated Total Annual Cost Burden (Non-Hourly): $3,267,181.32.
This information collection has annual (non-hour) costs in the form of
filing fees and postage costs.
This collection has filing fees associated with submitting patent
and trademark assignment documents to be recorded. The filing fees for
recording patent and trademark assignments are the same for both paper
and electronic submissions. However, the filing cost for recording
patent or trademark assignments varies according to the number of
properties involved in each submission.
Filing Fees
The filing fee for submitting a patent assignment as indicated by
37 CFR 1.21(h) is $40 per property for recording each document, while
the filing fee for submitting a trademark assignment as indicated by 37
CFR 2.6(b)(6) is $40 for recording the first property in a document and
$25 for each additional property in the same document. The USPTO
estimates that the average fee for a patent assignment recordation
request is approximately $80 and that the average fee for a trademark
assignment recordation request is approximately $65. Therefore, this
collection has an estimated total of $2,950,395 in filing fees per
year.
Table 2--Filing Costs
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Estimated Estimated
IC No. Information collection annual Filing fee total non-hour
instrument responses ($) cost burden
(a) (b) (a) x (b) =
(c)
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1................................ Patent Recordation Form Cover 2,498 $80.00 $199,840.00
Sheet (PTO-1595).
2................................ Trademark Recordation Form 816 65.00 53,040.00
Cover Sheet (PTO-1594).
4................................ Electronic Trademark 46,329 65.00 3,011,385.00
Assignment System (ETAS)
(PTO-1594).
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Total........................ ............................. 49,643 .............. 3,264,265.00
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[[Page 4041]]
Postage Costs
Customers may incur postage costs when submitting a patent or
trademark assignment request to the USPTO by mail. The Patent and
Trademark Recordation Cover Sheets will be submitted by mail, for a
total of 3,314 mailed submissions. The average postage cost for a
mailed Patent or Trademark Recordation Form Cover Sheet submission is
88 cents, resulting in a total postage cost of $2,916.32 per year for
this collection.
The total (non-hour) respondent cost burden for this collection in
the form of filing fees and postage costs is estimated to be
$3,267,181.32 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,
including the validity of the methodology and assumptions used; (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, including through the use of automated
collection techniques or other forms of information technology, e.g.,
permitting electronic submission of responses.
Comments submitted in response to this notice will be summarized or
included in the request for OMB approval of this information
collection; they will also become a matter of public record.
Marcie Lovett,
Records Management Division Director, USPTO, Office of the Chief
Information Officer.
[FR Doc. 2018-01608 Filed 1-26-18; 8:45 am]
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