74926 Federal Register / Vol. 89, No. 178 / Friday, September 13, 2024 / Notices 

Dated: September 10, 2024. 

Rey Israel Marquez, 

Acting Deputy Director, Office of Sustainable 

Fisheries, National Marine Fisheries Service. 

[FR Doc. 2024–20823 Filed 9–12–24; 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; Patent Reexaminations, 

Supplemental Examinations, and Post 

Patent Submissions 

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 on July 8, 2024 during a 60-day 

comment period (89 FR 55927). This 

notice allows for an additional 30 days 

for public comment. 

Agency: United States Patent and 

Trademark Office, Department of 

Commerce. 

Title: Patent Reexaminations, 

Supplemental Examinations, and Post 

Patent Submissions. 

OMB Control Number: 0651–0064. 

Needs and Uses: The United States 

Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) is 

required by 35 U.S.C. 131 and 151 to 

examine applications and, when 

appropriate, allow applications and 

issue them as patents. Chapter 30 of title 

35 U.S.C. provides that any person at 

any time may file a request for 

reexamination by the USPTO of any 

claim of a patent on the basis of prior 

art cited under the provisions of 35 

U.S.C. 301. Once initiated, the 

reexamination proceedings under 

Chapter 30 are substantially ex parte 

and do not permit input from third 

parties. The regulations outlining ex 

parte reexaminations are found at 37 

CFR 1.510–1.570. The purpose of this 

information collection is to facilitate 

requests for ex parte reexamination and 

supplemental examination, to facilitate 

prosecution of reexamination and to 

ensure that the associated 

documentation is submitted to the 

USPTO, and to permit relevant postpatent prior art and claim scope 

information to be entered into a patent 

file. 

35 U.S.C. 257 permits a patent owner 

to request supplemental examination of 

a patent by the USPTO to consider, 

reconsider, or correct information 

believed to be relevant to the patent. 

The regulations outlining supplemental 

examination are found at 37 CFR 1.601– 

1.625. 

The Leahy-Smith America Invents Act 

terminated inter partes reexamination 

effective September 16, 2012. However, 

inter partes reexamination proceedings 

based on inter partes reexamination 

requests filed before September 16, 

2012, continue to be prosecuted. 

Therefore, this collection continues to 

include items related to the prosecution 

of inter partes reexamination 

proceedings. The regulations outlining 

inter partes reexaminations are found at 

37 CFR 1.902–1.959. 

The provisions of 35 U.S.C. 301 and 

37 CFR 1.501 govern the ability of a 

person to submit into the file of an 

issued patent (1) prior art consisting of 

patents or printed publications which 

the person making the submission 

believes to have a bearing on the 

patentability of any claim of the issued 

patent and (2) statements of the owner 

of the issued patent filed in a 

proceeding before a federal court or the 

USPTO in which the owner of the 

issued patent took a position on the 

scope of any claim of the issued patent. 

Thus, the items included in this 

collection cover (1) requests for ex parte 

reexamination, (2) requests for 

supplemental examination, (3) 

information that may be submitted by 

patent owners and third-party 

requesters in relation to the prosecution 

of an ex parte or inter partes 

reexamination proceeding, (4) 

information submitted by the public to 

aid in ascertaining the patentability 

and/or scope of the claims of the issued 

patent, and (5) information submitted by 

patent owners regarding a position 

taken before the USPTO or a federal 

court regarding the scope of any claim 

in their issued patent. The USPTO’s use 

of the statements of the patent owners 

((5) above) will be limited to 

determining the meaning of a patent 

claim in ex parte reexamination 

proceedings that already have been 

ordered and in inter partes review and 

post grant review proceedings that 

already have been instituted. 

Forms: (SB = Specimen Book): 

• PTO/SB/42 (37 CFR 1.501 Information 

Disclosure Citation in a Patent) 

• PTO/SB/57 (Request for Ex Parte 

Reexamination Transmittal Form) 

• PTO/SB/59 (Request for 

Supplemental Examination 

Transmittal Form) 

Type of Review: Extension and 

revision of a currently approved 

information collection. 

Affected Public: Private sector. 

Respondent’s Obligation: Required to 

obtain or retain benefits. 

Frequency: On occasion. 

Estimated Number of Annual 

Respondents: 874 respondents. 

Estimated Number of Annual 

Responses: 890 responses. 

Estimated Time per Response: The 

USPTO estimates that the responses in 

this information collection will take the 

public approximately between 30 

minutes (0.5 hours) and 55 hours to 

complete. This includes the time to 

gather the necessary information, create 

the document, and submit the 

completed request to the USPTO. 

Estimated Total Annual Respondent 

Burden Hours: 25,714 hours. 

Estimated Total Annual Respondent 

Non-hourly Cost Burden: $3,680,879. 

This information collection request 

may be viewed at www.reginfo.gov. 

Follow the instructions to view 

Department of Commerce, USPTO 

information collections currently under 

review by OMB. 

Written comments and 

recommendations for this information 

collection should be submitted within 

30 days of the publication of this notice 

on the following website, 

www.reginfo.gov/public/do/PRAMain. 

Find this particular information 

collection by selecting ‘‘Currently under 

30-day Review—Open for Public 

Comments’’ or by using the search 

function and entering either the title of 

the information collection or the OMB 

Control Number, 0651–0064. 

Further information can be obtained 

by: 

• Email: InformationCollection@

uspto.gov. Include ‘‘0651–0064 

information request’’ in the subject line 

of the message. 

• Mail: Justin Isaac, Office of the 

Chief Administrative Officer, United 

States Patent and Trademark Office, 

P.O. Box 1450, Alexandria, VA 22313– 

1450. 

Justin Isaac, 

Information Collections Officer, Office of the 

Chief Administrative Officer, United States 

Patent and Trademark Office. 

[FR Doc. 2024–20807 Filed 9–12–24; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 3510–16–P 


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