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exercise their innovativeness more fully,

to the overall benefit of the economy.

This argument implies that this group

should be paying fee amounts that are

reduced to an even greater extent than

is currently done for small entities; that

is, a new fee category should be created

for independent inventors and

extremely small (micro) entities. How

should the patent fee structure define

and treat small entities?

D. Electronic Filing

The USPTO has the achievement of a

totally electronic system for receiving

applications as one of its major goals. In

order to create incentives for customers

to file electronically, it has been

suggested that the fee structure charge

more for paper applications, which are

more costly to process. Should the

patent and trademark fee structures

differentiate between electronic and

paper filings? If such a differentiation is

determined to be an effective means of

encouraging electronic filing, should it

be imposed immediately or phased in

over a period of years?

E. Unity of Invention

The European Patent Office, Japanese

Patent Office, and USPTO reached a

Trilateral agreement on harmonizing

unity of invention practice at the Sixth

Annual Trilateral Conference held in

Tokyo in 1988. The Trilateral agreement

allows a patent application to include a

group of inventions so linked as to form

a single general inventive concept,

termed unity of invention. This

agreement, adopted for PCT practice,

differs substantially from current U.S.

restriction practice. While this is not

primarily a fee structure issue, full

adoption of unity of invention would

mean that more inventions are

contained in fewer applications, with a

resultant increase in average

examination costs per application.

Under the current fee structure, this

would significantly reduce revenue

from application, issue, and

maintenance fees and thereby

necessitate an increase in these or other

fee amounts. If unity of invention were

adopted, how should the resulting

excess of costs over revenue be

recovered through the fee structure? For

example, it is believed that within

certain technology areas, the number of

patent applications and issues and their

associated fee revenue would decline

substantially, although the examination

workload would not change. Should

such technologies bear the burden of

resulting fee increases or should the

excess cost increment be apportioned

uniformly?

In light of the substantial fee level

adjustments that unity of invention

would require, what are its precise

benefits to the inventor community?

Dated: September 26, 2000.

Q. Todd Dickinson,

Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual

Property and Director of the United States

Patent and Trademark Office.

[FR Doc. 00–25225 Filed 9–29–00; 8:45 am]

BILLING CODE 3510–16–P

DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE

Office of the Secretary

[Transmittal No. 00–16]

36(b)(1) Arms Sales Notification

AGENCY: Department of Defense, Defense

Security Cooperation Agency.

ACTION: Notice.

SUMMARY: The Department of Defense is

publishing the unclassified text of a

section 36(b)(1) arms sales notification.

This is published to fulfill the

requirements of section 155 of P.L. 104–

164 dated 21 July 1996.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Ms.

J. Hurd, DSCA/COMPT/RM, (703) 604–

6575

The following is a copy of a letter to

the Speaker of the House of

Representatives, Transmittal 00–16 with

attached transmittal, policy justification,

and Sensitivity of Technology.

Dated: September 26, 2000.

L.M. Bynum,

Alternate OSD Federal Register Liaison

Officer, Department of Defense.

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