60666 Federal Register / Vol. 88, No. 170 / Tuesday, September 5, 2023 / Notices 

Dated: August 30, 2023. 

Rey Israel Marquez, 

Acting Deputy Director, Office of Sustainable 

Fisheries, National Marine Fisheries Service. 

[FR Doc. 2023–19097 Filed 9–1–23; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 3510–22–P 

DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE 

National Oceanic and Atmospheric 

Administration 

[RTID 0648–XD314] 

New England Fishery Management 

Council; Public Meeting 

AGENCY: National Marine Fisheries 

Service (NMFS), National Oceanic and 

Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), 

Commerce. 

ACTION: Notice of public meeting. 

SUMMARY: The New England Fishery 

Management Council (Council) is 

scheduling a hybrid meeting of its 

Scallop Committee to consider actions 

affecting New England fisheries in the 

exclusive economic zone (EEZ). 

Recommendations from this group will 

be brought to the full Council for formal 

consideration and action, if appropriate. 

DATES: This meeting will be held on 

Thursday, September 21, 2023, at 9 a.m. 

ADDRESSES: 

Meeting address: This meeting will be 

held at the Radisson Airport Hotel, 2081 

Post Road, Warwick, RI 02886; 

telephone: (401) 298–2294. 

Webinar registration URL 

information: https://

attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/ 

4549480481976411992. 

Council address: New England 

Fishery Management Council, 50 Water 

Street, Mill 2, Newburyport, MA 01950. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Cate 

O’Keefe, Ph.D., Executive Director, New 

England Fishery Management Council; 

telephone: (978) 465–0492. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

Agenda 

The Committee will discuss 

Framework 38—Review results of 2023 

scallop surveys, and preliminary 

projections. The primary focus of this 

meeting will be to develop input on the 

range of potential specification 

alternatives for FY 2024 and FY 2025. 

The action will set ABC/ACLs, days-atsea, access area allocations, total 

allowable landings for the Northern Gulf 

of Maine (NGOM) management area, 

targets for General Category incidental 

catch, General Category access area trips 

and trip accounting, and set-asides for 

the observer and research programs for 

fishing year 2024 and default 

specifications for fishing year 2025. 

They also plan to discuss the Northern 

Edge Action—Review work in response 

to tasking. Discuss possible measures for 

development in a Northern Edge Habitat 

Scallop Framework. Also on the agenda 

is work priorities (Advisory Panel and 

Committee Only)—Receive updates on 

the progress toward 2023 work priorities 

and Committee tasking. Provide input 

on the range of possible 2024 scallop 

work priorities. Other business will be 

discussed, if necessary. 

Although non-emergency issues not 

contained on the agenda may come 

before this Council for discussion, those 

issues may not be the subject of formal 

action during this meeting. Council 

action will be restricted to those issues 

specifically listed in this notice and any 

issues arising after publication of this 

notice that require emergency action 

under section 305(c) of the MagnusonStevens Act, provided the public has 

been notified of the Council’s intent to 

take final action to address the 

emergency. The public also should be 

aware that the meeting will be recorded. 

Consistent with 16 U.S.C. 1852, a copy 

of the recording is available upon 

request. 

Special Accommodations 

This meeting is physically accessible 

to people with disabilities. Requests for 

sign language interpretation or other 

auxiliary aids should be directed to Cate 

O’Keefe, Ph.D., Executive Director, at 

(978) 465–0492, at least 5 days prior to 

the meeting date. 

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

Dated: August 30, 2023. 

Rey Israel Marquez, 

Acting Deputy Director, Office of Sustainable 

Fisheries, National Marine Fisheries Service. 

[FR Doc. 2023–19098 Filed 9–1–23; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 3510–22–P 

DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE 

National Oceanic and Atmospheric 

Administration 

[RTID 0648–XD308] 

Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management 

Council; Public Meeting 

AGENCY: National Marine Fisheries 

Service (NMFS), National Oceanic and 

Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), 

Commerce. 

ACTION: Notice of a public meeting. 

SUMMARY: The Gulf of Mexico Fishery 

Management Council (Council) will 

hold a one-day in-person meeting of its 

Ecosystem Technical Committee (ETC). 

DATES: The meeting will be held 

Thursday, September 21, 2023; 8:30 

a.m.–4:30 p.m., EDT. 

ADDRESSES: The meeting will take place 

at the Gulf Council office. Registration 

information will be available on the 

Council’s website by visiting 

www.gulfcouncil.org and clicking on the 

‘‘meeting tab’’. 

Council address: Gulf of Mexico 

Fishery Management Council, 4107 W. 

Spruce Street, Suite 200, Tampa, FL 

33607; telephone: (813) 348–1630. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Dr. 

Natasha Mendez, Fishery Biologist, Gulf 

of Mexico Fishery Management Council; 

email: natasha.mendez@gulfcouncil.org, 

telephone: (813) 348–1630. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

Thursday, September 21, 2023; 8:30 

a.m.–4:30 p.m., EDT 

The meeting will begin with 

Introductions and Adoption of Agenda, 

Approval of Minutes and Meeting 

Summary from the April 19–20, 2023 

meeting and a review of the Scope of 

Work. The ETC will discuss the 

development of the Fishery Ecosystem 

Plan (FEP) for the Gulf of Mexico, 

review the draft updates to the Fishery 

Ecosystem Issue (FEI) Loop, and provide 

recommendations. 

Following, the ETC will discuss the 

assignment to develop a method to 

prioritize FEIs and provide 

recommendations. The ETC will also 

revisit the initially identified potential 

list of FEIs for the Council to consider. 

Lastly, the ETC will receive public 

comment at the end of the day, and 

discuss any items under Other Business. 

—Meeting Adjourns 

The meeting will also be broadcast via 

webinar. You may register for the 

webinar by visiting www.gulfcouncil.org 

and clicking on the Technical meeting 

on the calendar. 

The Agenda is subject to change, and 

the latest version along with other 

meeting materials will be posted on 

www.gulfcouncil.org as they become 

available. 

Although other non-emergency issues 

not on the agenda may come before the 

Committee for discussion, in accordance 

with the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery 

Conservation and Management Act, 

those issues may not be the subject of 

formal action during this meeting. 

Actions of the Committee will be 

restricted to those issues specifically 

identified in the agenda and any issues 

arising after publication of this notice 

that require emergency action under 

Section 305(c) of the Magnuson-Stevens 

Fishery Conservation and Management 

Act, provided the public has been 


ddrumheller on DSK120RN23PROD with NOTICES1
Federal Register / Vol. 88, No. 170 / Tuesday, September 5, 2023 / Notices 60667 

notified of the Council’s intent to takeaction to address the emergency. 

Special Accommodations 

The meeting is physically accessible 

to people with disabilities. Requests for 

sign language interpretation or other 

auxiliary aid should be directed to 

Kathy Pereira, (813) 348–1630, at least 

5 days prior to the meeting date. 

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

Dated: August 29, 2023. 

Rey Israel Marquez, 

Acting Deputy Director, Office of Sustainable 

Fisheries, National Marine Fisheries Service. 

[FR Doc. 2023–19002 Filed 9–1–23; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 3510–22–P 

DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE 

Patent and Trademark Office 

[Docket No. PTO–T–2023–0037] 

Requiring Identity Verification for 

Attorney-Sponsored Accounts 

AGENCY: United States Patent and 

Trademark Office, U.S. Department of 

Commerce. 

ACTION: Notice. 

SUMMARY: The United States Patent and 

Trademark Office (USPTO) announces 

that beginning on January 20, 2024, all 

existing and new attorney support staff 

with an attorney-sponsored USPTO.gov 

account will be required to verify their 

identity to access trademark filing 

systems. The USPTO is making this 

change after discovering that some U.S.- 

licensed attorneys have sponsored 

accounts for individuals who are not 

directly supervised attorney support 

staff, and that many of these sponsored 

accounts appear to be shared by 

multiple foreign agents and attorneys. 

These actions violate the Trademark 

Verified USPTO.gov Account 

Agreement (Agreement). 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Robert Lavache, Office of the Deputy 

Commissioner for Trademark 

Examination Policy, USPTO, at 571– 

272–5881. You can also send inquiries 

to TMFRNotices@uspto.gov. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: In late 

2019, as part of the USPTO’s continuing 

efforts to protect the integrity of the U.S. 

trademark register, and to better protect 

its customers from scams and other 

fraudulent activities related to the 

trademark register, the USPTO began 

requiring customers to create a 

USPTO.gov account to access and 

submit electronic trademark forms. This 

enabled the USPTO to monitor 

trademark filing behavior and aided in 

enforcing the USPTO Trademark Rules 

of Practice regarding submissions in 

trademark matters. On August 6, 2022, 

the USPTO began requiring existing and 

new account holders who occupy one of 

the appropriate user roles, including 

owner, U.S.-licensed attorney, Canadian 

attorney, or Canadian agent, to verify 

their identity. See Trademarks 

USPTO.gov Account ID Verification 

Program (87 FR 41114). The USPTO also 

offered a user role for sponsored 

attorney support staff to establish 

USPTO.gov accounts when sponsored 

by a supervising U.S.-licensed (or a 

reciprocally recognized Canadian) 

attorney, and at the time did not require 

identity verification for sponsored 

support staff accounts. See 87 FR 41114. 

Since establishing the sponsored staff 

user roles, the USPTO has discovered 

that some U.S.-licensed attorneys have 

sponsored accounts for individuals who 

are not directly supervised attorney 

support staff, which violates the 

Agreement that applies to all 

USPTO.gov account holders. Many of 

these sponsored accounts appear to be 

used by multiple foreign agents and 

attorneys who file thousands of 

trademark applications involving 

violations of the USPTO’s Trademark 

Rules of Practice, including the rules on 

signatures and certifications. Because 

the sponsored account user role has 

been subject to abuse that has 

undermined the integrity of the 

trademark register and such abuse can 

be significantly curtailed by requiring 

identity verification of sponsored 

account holders, the USPTO will now 

require all existing and new attorney 

support staff who are USPTO.gov 

account holders to verify their identity. 

On October 14, 2023, the USPTO will 

make identity verification available to 

attorney support staff account holders. It 

will become mandatory for such 

account holders on January 20, 2024. 

Requiring identity verification of 

sponsored accounts will help enforce 

the ‘‘one person, one account’’ rule, 

better enable the USPTO to restrict nonattorneys from submitting trademark 

filings, and prevent rule violations by 

filing entities and other unauthorized 

users. It will also allow the USPTO to 

better track and eliminate the use of 

sponsored accounts created for 

unsupervised use by non-attorney 

entities. 

Trademark applicants and registrants, 

or their attorneys and support staff, 

must register for and use a USPTO.gov 

account to access and submit trademark 

application and maintenance filings 

with the USPTO. Users of a USPTO.gov 

account and any other USPTO web page 

or system are required to comply with 

the Terms of Use for USPTO web pages. 

Further, to file trademark documents 

electronically, users must have their 

identities verified, and are further 

bound by the Agreement. A verified 

account can only be connected to one 

USPTO.gov trademark account. 

Once qualified U.S.-licensed attorneys 

have a trademark verified USPTO.gov 

account, they may sponsor the 

USPTO.gov accounts of directly 

supervised support staff. Attorneys who 

abuse the terms of sponsorship may 

have their sponsorship privileges—and 

potentially their own verified 

accounts—revoked. However, under the 

current system, support staff can simply 

create new accounts using unverified 

information and seek attorney 

sponsorship again, sometimes by the 

same attorney. Requiring identity 

verification of sponsored accounts will 

allow the USPTO to consistently enforce 

the Agreement and ensure that a user of 

a sponsored account cannot create 

multiple accounts or create a new 

account and again be sponsored. 

The following examples demonstrate 

the impact of the problems caused by 

the inappropriate use of sponsored 

accounts. In one instance of abuse, an 

attorney sponsored more than 30 

different accounts used by individuals 

not under their direct supervision, and 

perhaps not even personally known to 

the attorney. In another example, an 

attorney sponsored multiple accounts 

for use by non-attorney trademark 

preparation or filing entities, which are 

not authorized to practice law, file 

submissions for clients, or represent 

parties before the USPTO in trademark 

matters. Several of these accounts have 

also been connected to known scams 

that have defrauded many trademark 

applicants. Each of these behaviors 

violates the terms of the Agreement to 

which each of these attorneys 

consented. In addition, some law firms 

are creating institutional accounts that 

appear to be intended for use by 

multiple people under generic names 

such as ‘‘Admin Support.’’ This practice 

impedes the ability of the USPTO to 

maintain an accurate filing history and 

violates the Agreement, even if no 

improper activities are intended. 

Under the revised procedures, both 

existing and new sponsored attorney 

support staff USPTO.gov account 

holders will need to verify their 

identity, using either the electronic or 

paper process, to access the Trademark 

Electronic Application System (TEAS). 

Identity verification will become 

available on October 14, 2023, for 

attorney support staff account holders to 

verify their identities. Existing 

unverified sponsored attorney support 


ddrumheller on DSK120RN23PROD with NOTICES1