Federal Register / Vol. 83, No. 124 / Wednesday, June 27, 2018 / Notices 30145 

(c) Acoustic Monitoring Report 

Seattle DOT shall submit an Acoustic 

Monitoring Report within 90 days after 

completion of the in-water construction 

work, expiration of the IHA (if issued), 

or 60 days prior to the requested date of 

issuance of any subsequent IHA, 

whichever sooner. The report shall 

provide details on the monitored piles, 

method of installation, monitoring 

equipment, and sound levels 

documented during both the sound 

source measurements and the 

background monitoring. NMFS shall 

have an opportunity to provide 

comments on the report or changes in 

monitoring for the second season, and if 

NMFS has comments, Seattle DOT shall 

address the comments and submit a 

final report to NMFS within 30 days. If 

no comments are received from NMFS 

within 30 days, the draft report shall be 

considered final. Any comments 

received during that time shall be 

addressed in full prior to finalization of 

the report. 

8. This Authorization may be 

modified, suspended or withdrawn if 

the holder fails to abide by the 

conditions prescribed herein or if NMFS 

determines the authorized taking is 

having more than a negligible impact on 

the species or stock of affected marine 

mammals. 

9. A copy of this Authorization must 

be in the possession of each contractor 

who performs the construction work at 

the Pier 62 Project. 

Request for Public Comments 

We request comment on our analyses, 

the proposed authorization, and any 

other aspect of this Notice of Proposed 

IHA for the proposed pile driving 

activities by Seattle DOT. We also 

request comment on the potential for 

renewal of this proposed IHA as 

described in the paragraph below. 

Please include with your comments any 

supporting data or literature citations to 

help inform our final decision on the 

request for MMPA authorization. 

On a case-by-case basis, NMFS may 

issue a subsequent one-year IHA 

without additional notice when (1) 

another year of identical or nearly 

identical activities as described in the 

Specified Activities section is planned 

or (2) the activities would not be 

completed by the time the IHA expires 

and a subsequent IHA would allow for 

completion of the activities beyond that 

described in the Dates and Duration 

section, provided all of the following 

conditions are met: 

• A request for renewal is received no 

later than 60 days prior to expiration of 

the current IHA. 

• The request for renewal must 

include the following: 

(1) An explanation that the activities 

to be conducted beyond the initial dates 

either are identical to the previously 

analyzed activities or include changes 

so minor (e.g., reduction in pile size) 

that the changes do not affect the 

previous analyses, take estimates, or 

mitigation and monitoring 

requirements. 

(2) A preliminary monitoring report 

showing the results of the required 

monitoring to date and an explanation 

showing that the monitoring results do 

not indicate impacts of a scale or nature 

not previously analyzed or authorized. 

• Upon review of the request for 

renewal, the status of the affected 

species or stocks, and any other 

pertinent information, NMFS 

determines that there are no more than 

minor changes in the activities, the 

mitigation and monitoring measures 

remain the same and appropriate, and 

the original findings remain valid. 

Elaine T. Saiz, 

Acting Deputy Director, Office of Protected 

Resources, National Marine Fisheries Service. 

[FR Doc. 2018–13803 Filed 6–26–18; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 3510–22–P 

DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE 

Patent and Trademark Office 

[Docket No.: PTO–P–2018–0032] 

Patent Cooperation Treaty 

Collaborative Search and Examination 

Pilot Project Between the IP5 Offices 

AGENCY: United States Patent and 

Trademark Office, Commerce. 

ACTION: Notice. 

SUMMARY: The United States Patent and 

Trademark Office (USPTO), the 

European Patent Office (EPO), the Japan 

Patent Office (JPO), the Korean 

Intellectual Property Office (KIPO) and 

the State Intellectual Property Office of 

the People’s Republic of China (SIPO), 

referred to collectively as the IP5 

Offices, will launch a pilot project on 

Collaborative Search and Examination 

(CS&E) under the Patent Cooperation 

Treaty (PCT). This will be the third such 

pilot. The USPTO, the EPO, and the 

KIPO conducted two previous pilots in 

2010 and in 2011–2012. The third pilot 

is needed to further develop and test the 

concept amongst all the IP5 Offices. In 

particular, this IP5 pilot project aims at 

assessing user interest for a CS&E 

product and the expected efficiency 

gains for the IP5 Offices. 

DATES:

Pilot Effective date: July 1, 2018. 

Duration: Requests to participate in 

the PCT CS&E pilot project may be filed 

with international applications filed 

through the receiving Office of one of 

the IP5 Offices or the International 

Bureau of the World Intellectual 

Property Organization (WIPO) until June 

30, 2020. During each year, the USPTO, 

in its capacity as the main International 

Searching Authority, will accept a total 

of 50 international applications into the 

pilot. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Inquiries regarding the handling of any 

specific application participating in the 

pilot may be directed to Daniel Hunter, 

Director of International Work Sharing, 

Planning, and Implementation, Office of 

International Patent Cooperation, by 

telephone at (571) 272–8050 or by email 

to daniel.hunter@uspto.gov. Inquiries 

concerning this notice may be directed 

to Michael Neas, Deputy Director, 

International Patent Legal 

Administration, by phone (571) 272– 

3289 or by email to michael.neas@

uspto.gov. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

I. Concept 

The concept of CS&E under the PCT 

refers to the collaboration of examiners 

from different International Searching 

Authorities in different regions and with 

different working languages on one 

international application for the 

establishment of an international search 

report and written opinion under PCT 

Chapter I, which, although remaining 

the opinion of the chosen International 

Search Authority, is based on 

contributions from all participating IP5 

Offices. 

Under the pilot project, the examiner 

of the IP5 Office from the chosen 

International Searching Authority under 

PCT Rule 35 for a given international 

application (‘‘the main examiner’’) 

works on the application by conducting 

the search and examination and by 

establishing a provisional international 

search report and written opinion. 

These provisional work products are 

transmitted to examiners from the other 

participating IP5 Offices in their 

capacity as an International Searching 

Authority (‘‘the peer examiners’’). Each 

peer examiner provides the main 

examiner with his contribution, in light 

of the provisional international search 

report and written opinion. The final 

international search report and written 

opinion are subsequently established by 

the main examiner after having taken 

into consideration the contributions of 

the peer examiners. Further details 

regarding the implementation of the 


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30146 Federal Register / Vol. 83, No. 124 / Wednesday, June 27, 2018 / Notices 

CS&E concept within the framework of 

this pilot project are provided below. 

II. Framework 

Under the pilot project, with a view 

to assessing the users’ interest for a 

CS&E product, international 

applications processed under the 

collaborative scheme will be selected by 

applicants (‘‘applicant-driven 

approach’’), whereas, under the two 

previous pilot projects, the applications 

were selected by the participating IP5 

Offices. 

Applicants wishing to participate in 

the pilot project must submit a request 

for participation in the pilot on a 

standard participation form and file it 

together with the international 

application at the receiving Office of 

one of the IP5 Offices or the 

International Bureau. The participation 

form is available in all official languages 

of the IP5 Offices on WIPO’s website at 

http://www.wipo.int/pct/en/filing/ 

cse.html. 

For international applications filed in 

English, requests for participation in the 

pilot may be filed beginning July 1, 

2018. Each applicant will be able to 

select only a limited number of 

international applications for inclusion 

in the program. 

Initially, only international 

applications filed in English will be 

accepted into the pilot. Eventually, 

international authorities that work in 

languages other than English will accept 

international applications filed in those 

languages into the pilot. Each main 

International Searching Authority that 

will accept international applications 

filed in a language other than English 

will inform the applicants accordingly 

by a communication published on its 

website. Such communication will 

specify the additional languages that 

will be accepted by a main International 

Searching Authority for the purposes of 

this pilot and the date as of which 

requests for participation in the pilot 

may be filed in such languages. The 

USPTO in its capacity as an 

International Searching Authority only 

accepts applications in English. 

The receiving Office will transmit the 

participation form to the International 

Bureau and the main International 

Searching Authority as part of the 

record copy and search copy, 

respectively. Upon receipt of the search 

copy, the main International Searching 

Authority will determine if the request 

for participation in the pilot may be 

accepted based on whether the 

applicable requirements detailed below 

in part III are met. The International 

Searching Authority will notify the 

applicant and the International Bureau 

of the acceptance or refusal of the 

request for participation in the pilot 

using Form PCT/ISA/224 

(Communication in Cases for Which No 

Other Form Is Applicable). 

The main International Searching 

Authority will perform the search and 

examination as it would for any other 

international application not processed 

under this pilot. It will establish a 

provisional international search report 

(Form PCT/ISA/210) (or, where 

appropriate, declaration of nonestablishment of international search 

report (Form PCT/ISA/203)) and written 

opinion (Form PCT/ISA/237), and, 

where applicable, a record of the search 

strategy. The form and content of the 

record of the search strategy will 

generally be according to the current 

practice of each International Searching 

Authority. 

The main International Searching 

Authority will transmit the above 

mentioned provisional work products to 

the peer International Searching 

Authorities, where a peer examiner will 

prepare a contribution to the final work 

product, taking into consideration the 

provisional work products prepared by 

the main International Searching 

Authority and performing additional 

searching to the extent deemed 

necessary. 

With respect to the handling of cases 

lacking unity of invention by the peer 

International Searching Authorities, a 

principle of the first invention will be 

followed. This means that each main 

International Searching Authority 

proceeds with the non-unity procedure 

according to its own standard practice, 

while the provisional work products 

submitted to the peer International 

Searching Authorities are based only on 

the invention first mentioned in the 

claims as determined by the main 

International Searching Authority. Peer 

examiners will focus their searches on 

what they determine to be the first 

invention, regardless of whether the 

provisional work products are directed 

to one or more inventions. 

Each peer International Searching 

Authority will transmit its contribution 

to the main International Searching 

Authority using a standard peer 

contribution form. Depending on its 

practice, each peer International 

Searching Authority will either record 

its contribution directly on the peer 

contribution form or use the peer 

contribution form as a cover sheet for 

the standard forms PCT/ISA/210 and 

PCT/ISA/237. Peer contribution forms 

and peer contributions attached to such 

forms, if any, will be made available as 

separate documents in WIPO’s 

PATENTSCOPE. 

The main International Searching 

Authority will consider the 

contributions received from the peer 

International Searching Authorities and 

prepare the final international search 

report (Form PCT/ISA/210) (or, where 

appropriate, declaration of nonestablishment of international search 

report (Form PCT/ISA/203)) and written 

opinion (Form PCT/ISA/237) in light of 

these contributions. The main 

International Searching Authority will 

strive to establish these final work 

products within the time limit under 

PCT Rule 42.1; however, compliance 

with this time limit may not be 

guaranteed due to the collaborative 

nature of the pilot project, which 

inherently results in additional 

administrative burdens. The final work 

products will be transmitted to the 

applicant and the International Bureau. 

Final CS&E work products will be 

identified, either by a direct indication 

in box V of Form PCT/ISA/237 or at the 

top of a supplemental sheet referenced 

in said box, as the result of the 

collaboration under the pilot, which 

does not necessarily reflect the opinions 

of all IP5 Offices. Only the final CS&E 

work product may serve as a basis for 

requesting participation in a Patent 

Prosecution Highway (PPH) pilot 

program. 

All exchanges of documents and 

information among the IP5 Offices will 

be carried out via an ePCT-based 

platform allowing a secure and 

confidential data transmission. This 

ePCT-based platform is provided and 

maintained by the International Bureau. 

In this pilot project, the international 

search fee charged by each IP5 Office 

remains unchanged. Therefore, 

applicants participating in this pilot 

will pay only the standard fee for a PCT 

Chapter I search at the chosen 

International Searching Authority. 

However, if following this pilot the 

CS&E product is implemented as a 

regular product under the PCT, 

applicants will have to pay a specific fee 

for such product (the CS&E fee). The 

maximum prospective amount of the 

CS&E fee is the aggregated amount of 

the search fees of the participating 

International Searching Authorities plus 

an administrative fee to cover the 

collaboration costs. 

Towards the end of the pilot project, 

participating applicants will be asked to 

complete a questionnaire about their 

interest for a regular CS&E product 

under the PCT. Responses to the 

questionnaire will be taken into account 

by the IP5 Offices in the assessment of 

the pilot project. 


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Federal Register / Vol. 83, No. 124 / Wednesday, June 27, 2018 / Notices 30147 

III. Requirements and Limitations for 

Participation 

Applicants who would like to 

participate in the pilot project must be 

aware of both the following 

requirements to be met by applicants 

and the following limitations set by the 

IP5 Offices. 

A. Requirements To Be Met by 

Applicants 

The following requirements must be 

met by applicants wishing to participate 

in the pilot project: 

(a) The request for participation in the 

pilot must be submitted on the standard 

participation form and filed together 

with the international application. 

(b) The participation form and the 

international application must be filed 

at the receiving Office of one of the IP5 

Offices or at the International Bureau as 

receiving Office, and the applicant must 

select one of the IP5 Offices as the main 

International Searching Authority under 

PCT Rule 35. For example, U.S. 

applicants filing with the USPTO or the 

International Bureau as receiving Office 

may select the USPTO, the EPO, the 

KIPO, or the JPO as International 

Searching Authority, subject to certain 

limitations as described in the PCT 

Applicant’s Guide, Annex C/US. 

(c) Where the participation form and 

the international application are filed 

with the USPTO, they must be filed in 

electronic form via the USPTO’s EFSWeb system. The participation form 

must be loaded into EFS-Web as a 

separate document using document 

description ‘‘Request to Participate in 

PCT CS&E Pilot.’’ This is true even 

where the participation form is prepared 

using WIPO’s ePCT system since EFSWeb only extracts the PCT Request form 

and Fee Calculation sheet from ePCT or 

PCT Safe zip files. 

(d) The participation form and the 

international application must be filed 

in English when they are filed with the 

USPTO. As noted above, the other IP5 

Offices will initially only accept 

applications filed in English and will 

announce when they are prepared to 

accept applications in languages other 

than English. 

B. Limitations Set by the IP5 Offices 

The following limitations related to 

organizational aspects of the pilot must 

be complied with for the main 

International Searching Authority to 

accept a request for participation in the 

pilot: 

(a) The applicant must not have had 

ten international applications accepted 

in the pilot by the same main 

International Searching Authority. 

(b) The main International Searching 

Authority must not have accepted 100 

international applications into the pilot. 

The USPTO, in its capacity as the main 

International Searching Authority, will 

accept 50 applications during the first 

year of the pilot, that is from July 1, 

2018, to June 30, 2019, and 50 

applications during the second year of 

the pilot, that is from July 1, 2019, to 

June 30, 2020. 

(c) The main International Searching 

Authority must not determine that there 

is a defect in the application (e.g., the 

application does not contain a sequence 

listing portion of the description and/or 

a copy of a sequence listing in computer 

readable form as provided for in the 

Administrative Instructions under the 

PCT) impeding the processing of the 

application according to the timeline for 

the collaborative process. 

IV. Duration 

The pilot project is divided into two 

phases, a preparatory phase and an 

operational phase. The preparatory 

phase started on June 2, 2016, and was 

dedicated to the administrative and 

practical preparations required for a 

smooth functioning of the pilot. The 

operational phase will start on July 1, 

2018, and will be dedicated to the 

processing of applications under the 

collaborative scheme, the monitoring of 

applications for evaluation purposes, 

and the assessment of the outcome of 

the pilot. The operational phase will last 

for a period of three years ending on 

July 1, 2021, and will include an 

evaluation of the impact of the pilot on 

examination during the subsequent 

national/regional stages. Requests for 

participation in the pilot will be 

accepted only during the first two years 

of the operational phase, i.e., from July 

1, 2018, to June 30, 2020. 

Dated: June 21, 2018. 

Andrei Iancu, 

Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual 

Property and Director of the United States 

Patent and Trademark Office. 

[FR Doc. 2018–13800 Filed 6–26–18; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 3510–16–P 

DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE 

Office of the Secretary 

[Docket ID DOD–2018–OS–0039] 

Manual for Courts-Martial; Proposed 

Amendments 

AGENCY: Joint Service Committee on 

Military Justice (JSC), Department of 

Defense. 

ACTION: Notice of proposed amendments 

to the Manual for Courts-Martial, United 

States (2016 ed.) and notice of public 

meeting. 

SUMMARY: The Department of Defense 

requests comments on proposed 

changes to the Manual for CourtsMartial, United States (2016 ed.) (MCM). 

The proposed changes concern the rules 

of procedure and evidence applicable in 

trials by courts-martial as well as 

amendments to portions of the MCM 

discussing the punitive articles of the 

Uniform Code of Military Justice. The 

approval authority for these changes is 

the President. These proposed changes 

have not been coordinated within the 

Department of Defense under DoD 

Directive 5500.01, ‘‘Preparing, 

Processing and Coordinating 

Legislation, Executive Orders, 

Proclamations, Views Letters, and 

Testimony,’’ June 15, 2007, and do not 

constitute the official position of the 

Department of Defense, the Military 

Departments, or any other Government 

agency. 

DATES: Comments on the proposed 

changes must be received no later than 

August 27, 2018. A public meeting for 

comments will be held on July 11, 2018, 

at 1:30 p.m. in the United States Court 

of Appeals for the Armed Forces 

building, 450 E Street NW, Washington 

DC 20442–0001. 

ADDRESSES: You may submit comments, 

identified by docket number and title, 

by any of the following methods: 

• Federal eRulemaking Portal: http:// 

www.regulations.gov. Follow the 

instructions for submitting comments. 

• Mail: Department of Defense, Office 

of the Deputy Chief Management 

Officer, Directorate for Oversight and 

Compliance, 4800 Mark Center Drive, 

Mailbox #24, Suite 08D09, Alexandria, 

VA 22350–1700. 

Instructions: All submissions received 

must include the agency name and 

docket number for this Federal Register 

document. The general policy for 

comments and other submissions from 

members of the public is to make these 

submissions available for public 

viewing on the internet at http://

www.regulations.gov as they are 

received without change, including any 

personal identifiers or contact 

information. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Lieutenant Alexandra Nica, JAGC, USN, 

Executive Secretary, JSC, (202) 685– 

7058, alexandra.nica@navy.mil. The JSC 

website is located at http://

jsc.defense.gov. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: This 

notice is provided in accordance with 


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