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                    the following: the agency or agencies that issued and signed a document
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                      the document amends, proposes to amend, or is directly
                      related to
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                      the Unified Agenda of Federal Regulatory and Deregulatory
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                    Document Drafting Handbook
                    for more details.
 Department of Commerce Patent and Trademark Office
 
 
 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 55924). This notice allows for an additional 30 days for public comment. *Agency:*
                     United States Patent and Trademark Office, Department of Commerce. *Title:*
                     Third-Party Submissions and Protests. *OMB Control Number:*
                     0651-0062. *Needs and Uses:*
                     The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) is required by 35 U.S.C. 131 
                    *et seq.*
                     to examine an application for patent and, when appropriate, issue a patent. The provisions of 35 U.S.C. 122(c), 122(e), 131, and 151, as well as 37 CFR 1.290 and 1.291, limit the ability of a third-party to have information entered and considered in, or to protest, a patent application pending before the USPTO. 37 CFR 1.290 provides a mechanism for third parties to submit to the USPTO for consideration and inclusion in the record of a patent application, any patents, published patent applications, or other printed publications of potential relevance to the examination of the application. A third-party submission under 37 CFR 1.290 may be made in any nonprovisional utility, design, and plant application, including any continuing application. A third-party submission under 37 CFR 1.290 must include a concise description of the asserted relevance of each document submitted, and must be submitted within a certain statutorily specified time period. 37 CFR 1.291 permits a member of the public to file a protest against a pending application. Protests pursuant to 37 CFR 1.291 are supported by a separate statutory provision from third-party submissions under 37 CFR 1.290. As a result, there are several differences between protests and third-party submissions, as explained in the table below. Table 1—Comparison of Third-Party Submissions and Protests
Comparison
Third-party submission
ProtestStatute/Regulation
35 U.S.C. 122(e), 37 CFR 1.290
35 U.S.C. 122(c), 37 CFR 1.291.Content
Printed publications
Printed publications and any facts or information adverse to patentability.Remarks
Concise description of relevance (limited to a concise description of each document's relevance)
Concise explanation of the relevance (allows for arguments against patentability).Timing
The earlier of—
                             (A) the date of a notice of allowance; or (B) the later of— 
                             (i) 6 months after the date of Pre-Grant Publication, or 
                             (ii) the date of the first rejection of any claim during the examination of the application for patent
(1) Prior to the date of Pre-Grant Publication or the date of a notice of allowance, whichever occurs first, or (2) accompanied by written consent of the applicant and prior to the date of a notice of allowance.
 For example, 37 CFR 1.291 permits the submission of information that is not permitted in a third-party submission under 37 CFR 1.290. Specifically, 37 CFR 1.291 provides for the submission of information other than publications, including any facts or information adverse to patentability. Unlike the concise explanation of the relevance required for a preissuance submission under 37 CFR 1.290, which is limited to a description of a document's relevance, the concise explanation for a protest under 37 CFR 1.291 allows for arguments against patentability. Additionally, the specified time period for submitting a protest differs from the time period for submitting third-party submissions and is impacted by whether the protest is accompanied by the written consent of the applicant. This information collection covers the items used by the public to submit information and protests regarding patent applications to the USPTO. This information collection is necessary so that the public can contribute to the quality of issued patents. The USPTO will use this information, as appropriate, to assist in evaluating the patent application as it moves through the patent examination process. *Forms:*
                     (SB = Specimen Book). PTO/SB/429 (Third-Party Submission Under37 CFR 1.290) *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:*
                     1,033 respondents. *Estimated Number of Annual Responses:*
                     1,033 responses. *Estimated Time per Response:*
                     The USPTO estimates that the responses in this information collection will take the public approximately 10 hours to complete. This includes the time to gather the necessary information, create the document, and submit the completed item to the USPTO. *Estimated Total Annual Respondent Burden Hours:*
                     10,330 hours. *Estimated Total Annual Respondent Non-hourly Cost Burden:*
                     $153,686. 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, 0651-0062. Further information can be obtained by: *Email:**InformationCollection@uspto.gov.*
                     Include “0651-0062 information request” in the subject line of the message.
*Mail:*
                     Justin Isaac, Office of the Chief Administrative Officer, United 
                    ( print page 74928)
                    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. 2024-20813 Filed 9-12-24; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 3510-16-P