Federal Register / Vol. 88, No. 186 / Wednesday, September 27, 2023 / Notices 66413 

2Best abundance estimate. For most taxa, the best abundance estimate for purposes of comparison with take estimates is considered here to 

be the model-predicted abundance (Roberts et al., 2016). For those taxa where a density surface model predicting abundance by month was 

produced, the maximum mean seasonal abundance was used. For those taxa where abundance is not predicted by month, only mean annual 

abundance is available. For Rice’s whale and killer whale, the larger estimated SAR abundance estimate is used. 3 Includes 3 takes by Level A harassment and 47 takes by Level B harassment. 

4 Modeled exposure estimate less than assumed average group size (Maze-Foley and Mullin, 2006) 

Based on the analysis contained 

herein of LLOG’s proposed survey 

activity described in its LOA 

application and the anticipated take of 

marine mammals, NMFS finds that 

small numbers of marine mammals will 

be taken relative to the affected species 

or stock sizes (i.e., less than one-third of 

the best available abundance estimate) 

and therefore the taking is of no more 

than small numbers. 

Authorization 

NMFS has determined that the level 

of taking for this LOA request is 

consistent with the findings made for 

the total taking allowable under the 

incidental take regulations and that the 

amount of take authorized under the 

LOA is of no more than small numbers. 

Accordingly, we have issued an LOA to 

LLOG authorizing the take of marine 

mammals incidental to its geophysical 

survey activity, as described above. 

Dated: September 21, 2023. 

Catherine Marzin, 

Acting Director, Office of Protected Resources, 

National Marine Fisheries Service. 

[FR Doc. 2023–20947 Filed 9–26–23; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 3510–22–P 

DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE 

National Oceanic and Atmospheric 

Administration 

[RTID 0648–XD397] 

South Atlantic 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 South Atlantic Fishery 

Management Council (Council) will 

hold a meeting of its Executive 

Committee via webinar to discuss the 

Council budget and workplan. 

DATES: The meeting will be held from 1 

p.m. until 3 p.m. on Tuesday, October 

24, 2023. 

ADDRESSES: The meeting will be held 

via webinar. Webinar registration is 

required. Details are included in 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Kim 

Iverson, Public Information Officer, 

SAFMC; phone: (843) 302–8440 or toll 

free: (866) SAFMC–10; fax: (843) 769– 

4520; email: kim.iverson@safmc.net. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Meeting 

information, including the webinar 

registration link, online public comment 

form, agenda, and briefing book 

materials will be posted on the 

Council’s website at: https://safmc.net/ 

council-meetings/. Comments become 

part of the Administrative Record of the 

meeting and will automatically be 

posted to the website and available for 

Council consideration. 

At this meeting, the Council’s 

Executive Committee will review the 

2023 Council budget status, planned 

activities for 2023, and the draft 2024 

operating budget including priorities for 

potential additional funds available 

through the Inflation Reduction Act. 

The meeting will include a closed 

session to discuss personnel topics. 

Although non-emergency issues not 

contained in this agenda may come 

before this group for discussion, those 

issues may not be the subject of formal 

action during this meeting. Action will 

be restricted to those issues specifically 

identified in this notice 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 

notified of the Council’s intent to take 

final action to address the emergency. 

Special Accommodations 

The meeting is physically accessible 

to people with disabilities. Requests for 

auxiliary aids should be directed to the 

Council office (see ADDRESSES) 5 days 

prior to the meeting. 

Note: The times and sequence specified in 

this agenda are subject to change. 

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

Dated: September 22, 2023. 

Rey Israel Marquez, 

Acting Deputy Director, Office of Sustainable 

Fisheries, National Marine Fisheries Service. 

[FR Doc. 2023–21059 Filed 9–26–23; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 3510–22–P 

DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE 

National Oceanic and Atmospheric 

Administration 

[RTID 0648–XD401] 

Fisheries of the South Atlantic; 

Southeast Data, Assessment, and 

Review (SEDAR); Public Meeting 

AGENCY: National Marine Fisheries 

Service (NMFS), National Oceanic and 

Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), 

Commerce. 

ACTION: Notice of SEDAR 82 South 

Atlantic Gray Triggerfish Assessment 

Webinar 7. 

SUMMARY: The SEDAR 82 assessment of 

the South Atlantic stock of gray 

triggerfish will consist of a data 

workshop, a series of assessment 

webinars, and a review workshop. See 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION. 

DATES: The SEDAR 82 South Atlantic 

Gray Triggerfish Assessment Webinar 7 

is scheduled for October 18, 2023, from 

11 a.m. to 3 p.m., Eastern. The 

established times may be adjusted as 

necessary to accommodate the timely 

completion of discussion relevant to the 

assessment process. Such adjustments 

may result in the meeting being 

extended from or completed prior to the 

time established by this notice. 

ADDRESSES: 

Meeting address: The meeting will be 

held via webinar. The webinar is open 

to members of the public. Registration 

for the webinar is available by 

contacting the SEDAR coordinator via 

email at Meisha.Key@safmc.net. 

SEDAR address: South Atlantic 

Fishery Management Council, 4055 

Faber Place Drive, Suite 201, N. 

Charleston, SC 29405; 

www.sedarweb.org. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Meisha Key, SEDAR Coordinator, 4055 

Faber Place Drive, Suite 201, North 

Charleston, SC 29405; phone (843) 571– 

4366; email: Meisha.Key@safmc.net. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The Gulf 

of Mexico, South Atlantic, and 

Caribbean Fishery Management 

Councils, in conjunction with NOAA 

Fisheries and the Atlantic and Gulf 

States Marine Fisheries Commissions, 

have implemented the Southeast Data, 

Assessment and Review (SEDAR) 

process, a multi-step method for 


ddrumheller on DSK120RN23PROD with NOTICES1
66414 Federal Register / Vol. 88, No. 186 / Wednesday, September 27, 2023 / Notices 

determining the status of fish stocks in 

the Southeast Region. SEDAR is a threestep process including: (1) Data 

Workshop; (2) Assessment Process 

utilizing webinars; and (3) Review 

Workshop. The product of the Data 

Workshop is a data report which 

compiles and evaluates potential 

datasets and recommends which 

datasets are appropriate for assessment 

analyses. The product of the Assessment 

Process is a stock assessment report 

which describes the fisheries, evaluates 

the status of the stock, estimates 

biological benchmarks, projects future 

population conditions, and recommends 

research and monitoring needs. The 

assessment is independently peer 

reviewed at the Review Workshop. The 

product of the Review Workshop is a 

Summary documenting panel opinions 

regarding the strengths and weaknesses 

of the stock assessment and input data. 

Participants for SEDAR Workshops are 

appointed by the Gulf of Mexico, South 

Atlantic, and Caribbean Fishery 

Management Councils and NOAA 

Fisheries Southeast Regional Office, 

Highly Migratory Species Management 

Division, and Southeast Fisheries 

Science Center. Participants include: 

data collectors and database managers; 

stock assessment scientists, biologists, 

and researchers; constituency 

representatives including fishermen, 

environmentalists, and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs); 

international experts; and staff of 

Councils, Commissions, and state and 

federal agencies. 

The items of discussion at the SEDAR 82 

South Atlantic Gray Triggerfish Assessment 

Webinar 7 are as follows: Discuss any 

leftover data issues that were not cleared up 

during the data process, answer any 

questions that the analysts have, and discuss 

model development and model setup. 

Although non-emergency issues not 

contained in this agenda may come 

before this group for discussion, those 

issues may not be the subject of formal 

action during this meeting. Action will 

be restricted to those issues specifically 

identified in this notice 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 

notified of the intent to take final action 

to address the emergency. 

Special Accommodations 

This meeting is accessible to people 

with disabilities. Requests for auxiliary 

aids should be directed to the South 

Atlantic Fishery Management Council 

office (see ADDRESSES) at least 5 

business days prior to the meeting. 

Note: The times and sequence specified in 

this agenda are subject to change. 

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

Dated: September 22, 2023. 

Rey Israel Marquez, 

Acting Deputy Director, Office of Sustainable 

Fisheries, National Marine Fisheries Service. 

[FR Doc. 2023–21058 Filed 9–26–23; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 3510–22–P 

DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE 

Patent and Trademark Office 

Agency Information Collection 

Activities; Submission to the Office of 

Management and Budget (OMB) for 

Review and Approval; Comment 

Request; DOCX Submission 

Requirements 

The United States Patent and 

Trademark Office (USPTO) will submit 

the following information collection 

request to the Office of Management and 

Budget (OMB) for review and clearance 

in accordance with the Paperwork 

Reduction Act of 1995, on or after the 

date of publication of this notice. The 

USPTO invites comments on this 

information collection renewal, which 

helps the USPTO assess the impact of 

its information collection requirements 

and minimize the public’s reporting 

burden. Public comments were 

previously requested via the Federal 

Register (88 FR 37039) on June 6, 2023 

during a 60-day comment period. This 

notice allows for an additional 30 days 

for public comment. 

Agency: United States Patent and 

Trademark Office, Department of 

Commerce. 

Title: DOCX Submission 

Requirements. 

OMB Control Number: 0651–New. 

Needs and Uses: On August 3, 2020, 

the USPTO published a final rule in the 

Federal Register that included a new fee 

set forth in 37 CFR 1.16(u). See Setting 

and Adjusting Patent Fees in Fiscal Year 

2020, 85 FR 46932. Although that final 

rule indicated the new fee at § 1.16(u) 

would go into effect on January 1, 2022, 

the effective date of the new fee was 

delayed to give applicants more time to 

adjust to filing patent applications in 

the DOCX format. 

As specified in § 1.16(u), the fee is 

due for any application filed under 35 

U.S.C. 111 for an original patent— 

except design, plant, or provisional 

applications—where the specification, 

claims, and/or abstract do not conform 

to the USPTO requirements for 

submission in the DOCX format. 

Therefore, the fee is due for 

nonprovisional utility applications filed 

under 35 U.S.C. 111, including 

continuing applications, that are not 

filed in the DOCX format. 

The USPTO conducted two pilot 

programs for filing applications in the 

DOCX format. The eMod Text Pilot 

Program was conducted between August 

2016 and September 2017. The USPTO 

then expanded the ability to file patent 

applications in the DOCX format in 

EFS–Web to all users in September 

2017. In 2018, the USPTO launched the 

Patent Center and conducted the Patent 

Center Text Pilot Program from June 

2018 through April 2020. All applicants 

have been able to file applications in the 

DOCX format in the Patent Center since 

April 2020. Information about the Patent 

Center is available at www.uspto.gov/ 

PatentCenter. The USPTO continues to 

hold many discussions and training 

sessions with stakeholders to ensure a 

fair and reasonable transition to the 

DOCX format. In addition, to further 

ensure a fair and reasonable transition 

to the DOCX format, the USPTO has, 

since April 2022, provided patent 

applicants with the option to submit a 

back-up applicant-generated PDF 

version of the application along with the 

DOCX file(s) when filing an application 

in Patent Center. See Extension of the 

Option for Submission of a PDF With a 

Patent Application Filed in DOCX 

Format, 88 FR 37036 (Jun. 6, 2023). 

The items in this new information 

collection relate solely to the impacts of 

the § 1.16(u) non-DOCX filing surcharge 

fee on the filing of nonprovisional 

utility applications under 35 U.S.C. 111, 

including continuing applications. In 

particular, this new information 

collection accounts for the § 1.16(u) 

non-DOCX filing surcharge fee itself, as 

well as an additional 30 minutes of time 

to accommodate (i) the extra review that 

some respondents may undertake as 

they start to become more familiar with 

the DOCX format and (ii) submission of 

the back-up applicant-generated PDF 

that some respondents will opt to 

submit. 

The estimated volumes for the items 

in this new information collection are 

based on the estimates for the 

corresponding nonprovisional utility 

applications filed under 35 U.S.C. 111, 

including continuing applications, that 

are covered under an existing OMB 

clearance (0651–0032; Initial Patent 

Applications). Respondents for the 

items in the new information collection 

will either take an extra 30 minutes to 

file their applications in DOCX format 

or they will pay the non-DOCX 

surcharge, they will not do both. 

Form Numbers: None. 

Type of Review: New. 


ddrumheller on DSK120RN23PROD with NOTICES1