8182 Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 22 / Thursday, February 4, 2021 / Notices 

TABLE 1—STANDARD EX-VESSEL

PRICES BY SPECIES FOR THE 2020 

ROCKFISH PROGRAM SEASON IN KODIAK, ALASKA—Continued 

Species Period ending 

Standard 

ex-vessel 

price per 

pound 

September 30 0.25 

October 31 .... 0.24 

November 30 0.25 

Thornyhead rockfish May 31 .......... 0.31 

June 30 ......... 0.20 

July 31 .......... 0.22 

August 31 ..... 0.22 

September 30 0.22 

October 31 .... 0.08 

November 30 0.22 

* The pelagic shelf rockfish species group has 

been changed to ‘‘dusky rockfish.’’ 

Authority: 16 U.S.C. 773 et seq.; 1801 et 

seq.; 3631 et seq.; Pub. L. 108–447; Pub. L. 

111–281. 

Dated: February 1, 2021. 

Jennifer M. Wallace, 

Acting Director, Office of Sustainable 

Fisheries, National Marine Fisheries Service. 

[FR Doc. 2021–02334 Filed 2–3–21; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 3510–22–P 

DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE 

National Oceanic and Atmospheric 

Administration 

[RTID 0648–XA758] 

Magnuson-Stevens Act Provisions; 

Fisheries of the Northeastern United 

States; Northeast Multispecies 

Fishery; Approved Monitoring Service 

Providers 

AGENCY: National Marine Fisheries 

Service (NMFS), National Oceanic and 

Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), 

Commerce. 

ACTION: Notification of approved 

monitoring service providers. 

SUMMARY: NMFS has approved six 

companies to provide Northeast 

multispecies sector at-sea and/or 

electronic monitoring services in fishing 

years 2021 and 2022. Regulations 

implementing the Northeast 

Multispecies Fishery Management Plan 

require at-sea and electronic monitoring 

companies to apply to, and be approved 

by, NMFS in order to be eligible to 

provide monitoring services to sectors. 

This action will allow sectors to 

contract for at-sea and electronic 

monitoring services with any of the 

approved service providers for fishing 

years 2021 and 2022. 

ADDRESSES: The list of NMFS-approved 

sector monitoring service providers is 

available at: https://

www.fisheries.noaa.gov/resource/data/ 

observer-providers-northeast-and-midatlantic-programs. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Claire Fitz-Gerald, Fishery Policy 

Analyst, (978) 281–9255, email 

Claire.Fitz-Gerald@noaa.gov. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The 

Northeast Multispecies Fishery 

Management Plan includes a 

requirement for industry-funded 

monitoring of catch by sector vessels. 

Sectors must contract with independent 

third-party service providers to provide 

at-sea and/or electronic monitoring 

services to their vessels. In order to 

provide at-sea or electronic monitoring 

services to sectors, monitoring 

companies must apply to, and be 

approved by, NMFS. Once approved, 

service providers must meet specified 

performance requirements outlined in 

50 CFR 648.87(b)(4), including required 

coverage levels, in order to maintain 

eligibility. 

At-Sea and Electronic Monitoring 

Service Provider Approval Process 

Applications approved this year will 

cover both fishing year 2021 and fishing 

year 2022 (May 1, 2021 through April 

30, 2023). There will be an opportunity 

in the fall of 2021 for additional 

monitoring companies to apply for 

approval to provide at-sea and 

electronic monitoring services in fishing 

year 2022. 

The regulations at § 648.87(b)(4) 

describe the criteria for approval of atsea and electronic monitoring service 

providers. We approve service providers 

based on: (1) Completeness and 

sufficiency of applications; and (2) 

determination of the applicant’s ability 

to meet the performance requirements of 

a sector monitoring service provider. We 

must notify service providers, in 

writing, if NMFS withdraws approval 

for any reason. 

Approved Monitoring Service Providers 

NMFS approved six companies to 

provide monitoring services to the 

Northeast multispecies sectors in fishing 

years 2021 and 2022. Four of the six 

companies are approved to provide both 

at-sea and electronic monitoring 

services: A.I.S., Inc.; East West 

Technical Services, LLC; Fathom 

Research, LLC; and Saltwater, Inc. 

NMFS approved the other two 

companies to provide electronic 

monitoring services: Flywire Cameras 

and Teem Fish. 

We approved these six companies to 

provide at-sea and/or electronic 

monitoring services in fishing years 

2021 and 2022 because they have met 

the application requirements and 

documented their ability to comply with 

service provider standards. In addition, 

A.I.S., Inc., East West Technical 

Services, LLC, and Fathom Research, 

LLC are currently approved to provide 

at-sea monitoring services to sectors in 

fishing years 2019 and 2020 and have a 

history of meeting or exceeding the 

requirements of the at-sea monitoring 

program in the region. We will closely 

monitor the performance of approved 

providers, and we will withdraw 

approval during the current approval 

term, or disapprove a provider in future 

fishing years, if we determine 

performance standards are not being 

met. 

We received applications from two 

additional companies, but need further 

information before their application is 

sufficiently complete for us to make an 

approval determination. Typically, we 

engage in an iterative process with 

provider companies to assist them in 

assembling and submitting a complete 

application for our consideration. 

Because this is our first time approving 

electronic monitoring companies to 

provider monitoring services, we are 

continuing to work with these 

companies to help them through this 

process. In the meantime, we are 

continuing with the approval process 

for the providers that have submitted 

complete applications and 

demonstrated their ability to meet 

program requirements. Moving forward 

with notification of our approval of the 

completed applications while 

continuing to work with the two 

remaining applicants is necessary to 

allow sectors sufficient time to negotiate 

monitoring contracts for the upcoming 

fishing year. If we subsequently decide 

to approve these companies, we will 

publish an additional notice in the 

Federal Register announcing our 

decision. 

TABLE 1—APPROVED PROVIDERS FOR FISHING YEARS 2021 AND 2022 

Provider Services * Address Phone Fax Website 

A.I.S., Inc .. ASM/EM ......... 540 Hawthorn St., Dartmouth, MA 02747.508–990–9054 508–990–9055 https://aisobservers.com/ 


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Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 22 / Thursday, February 4, 2021 / Notices 8183 

TABLE 1—APPROVED PROVIDERS FOR FISHING YEARS 2021 AND 2022—Continued 

Provider Services * Address Phone Fax Website 

East West 

Technical 

Services, 

LLC.

ASM/EM ......... 91 Point Judith Rd., 

Unit 347, Narragansett, RI 02882.

860–910–4957 860–223–6005 https://www.ewts.com/ 

Fathom Resources, 

LLC.

ASM/EM ......... 855 Aquidneck Ave., 

Unit 9, Middletown, 

RI 02842.

508–990–0997 508–991–7372 https://fathomresources.com/ 

Flywire 

Cameras.

EM ................. PO BOX 55048, Lexington, KY 40511.888–315–7796 502–861–6568 https://www.flywirecameras.com/ 

Saltwater, 

Inc.

ASM/EM ......... 733 N St., Anchorage, 

AK 99501.

907–276–3241 907–258–5999 https://www.saltwaterinc.com/ 

Teem Fish EM ................. 90–425 Carrall St., Vancouver, BC V6B 6E3 

Canada.

778–884–2598 ................................ https://teem.fish/ 

* ASM/EM = At-sea and electronic monitoring; EM = Electronic monitoring only. 

Authority: 16 U.S.C. 1801 et seq. 

Dated: January 29, 2021. 

Jennifer M. Wallace, 

Acting Director, Office of Sustainable 

Fisheries, National Marine Fisheries Service. 

[FR Doc. 2021–02336 Filed 2–3–21; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 3510–22–P 

DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE 

Patent and Trademark Office 

[Docket No.: PTO–P–2020–0062] 

Expanded Collaborative Search Pilot 

Program Extension 

AGENCY: United States Patent and 

Trademark Office, Department of 

Commerce. 

ACTION: Notice. 

SUMMARY: The United States Patent and 

Trademark Office (USPTO) has 

extended the Expanded Collaborative 

Search Pilot (CSP) program, originally 

running from November 2017 through 

October 2020, an additional two years. 

The Expanded CSP program, conducted 

with the Japan Patent Office (JPO) and 

the Korean Intellectual Property Office 

(KIPO), builds on the success of the 

initial CSP program, taking advantage of 

improvements in patent quality and 

examination pendency. With the 

Expanded CSP, applicants may request 

that multiple partnering intellectual 

property (IP) offices exchange search 

results for their counterpart applications 

prior to formulating and issuing their 

office actions. Each designated partner 

IP office independently conducts a prior 

art search for its corresponding 

counterpart application. The search 

results are then exchanged between the 

designated partner IP office(s), 

including the USPTO, before any IP 

office issues an office action. With this 

exchange of search results, the 

examiners in all designated partner IP 

offices will have a more comprehensive 

set of prior art references to consider 

when making initial patentability 

determinations. The Expanded CSP 

allows the USPTO to study the impact 

on examination processes of exchanges 

of search results between the USPTO 

and multiple partner IP offices prior to 

formulating and issuing office actions. 

DATES: Under the Expanded CSP, the 

USPTO and partner IP offices will each 

continue to accept requests to 

participate beyond November 1, 2020, 

until October 31, 2022. Each IP office 

will not grant more than 400 requests 

per year per partner office. The offices 

may extend the pilot program (with or 

without modification) if they deem it 

appropriate. Each office reserves the 

right to withdraw from the program at 

any time. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Inquiries regarding the handling of any 

specific application participating in the 

pilot may be directed to Nelson Yang, 

Senior Advisor, International Patent 

Business Solutions, Office of 

International Patent Cooperation, by 

phone at 571–272–0826. Any inquiries 

regarding this pilot program can be 

emailed to csp@uspto.gov. Inquiries 

concerning this notice may be directed 

to Anthony Smith, Attorney-Advisor, 

International Patent Legal 

Administration, by phone at 571–272– 

3298. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

I. Background 

The USPTO is continually looking for 

ways to improve the quality of issued 

patents and to promote worksharing 

with other IP offices throughout the 

world. Worksharing benefits applicants 

by promoting compact prosecution, 

reducing pendency, and supporting 

patent quality by reducing the 

likelihood of inconsistencies in 

patentability determinations (not 

predicated upon differences in national 

patent laws) between IP offices. The 

USPTO has launched numerous 

worksharing pilot programs, including 

both the Initial and Expanded versions 

of CSP with the JPO and the KIPO. In 

the Initial CSP, the participating offices 

implemented administrative procedures 

to facilitate worksharing between the 

USPTO and a single designated partner 

IP office in the form of sharing search 

results of related counterpart 

applications. Feedback from the 

completed Initial CSP and the current 

Expanded CSP showed sufficiently 

positive benefits to justify extending the 

CSP an additional two years to continue 

to permit worksharing between the 

USPTO and more than one designated 

partner IP office for the corresponding 

U.S. application. 

The USPTO will continue to 

cooperate in the Expanded CSP to 

determine whether exchanging the 

results from searches independently 

performed by multiple IP offices, which 

occur substantially simultaneously, also 

increases the efficiency and quality of 

patent examination. The Expanded CSP 

is designed so that this exchange of 

search results would occur prior to the 

IP offices making initial patentability 

determinations. The current partner IP 

offices for the Expanded CSP remain the 

JPO and the KIPO. The USPTO will 

announce future partner IP offices when 

they are designated. 

Currently, applicants in the USPTO 

having U.S. applications with claims of 

foreign priority may have search results 

and prior art cited to them by the 

foreign IP office during pendency of 

their U.S. applications. Often, 

applicants submit the prior art after 

examination on the merits is already 

underway in their U.S. application. 

Upon evaluation of the search results 


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