Federal Register / Vol. 87, No. 60 / Tuesday, March 29, 2022 / Notices 17995 

information from public review, we 

cannot guarantee that we will be able to 

do so. 

Sheleen Dumas, 

Department PRA Clearance Officer, Office of 

the Chief Information Officer, Commerce 

Department. 

[FR Doc. 2022–06598 Filed 3–28–22; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 3510–22–P 

DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE 

Patent and Trademark Office 

[Docket No. PTO–P–2022–0001] 

Expanded Collaborative Search Pilot 

Program—New Combined Petition 

Option for Participation 

AGENCY: United States Patent and 

Trademark Office, Department of 

Commerce. 

ACTION: Notice. 

SUMMARY: The United States Patent and 

Trademark Office (USPTO), in 

partnership with the Japan Patent Office 

(JPO) and the Korean Intellectual 

Property Office (KIPO), have 

collaborated on a new petition option 

for participation in the Expanded 

Collaborative Search Pilot (CSP) 

program. The new petition option, 

which has several enhancements 

compared to the current petition form 

and process, permits an applicant to file 

a combined petition in one of the 

partner intellectual property (IP) offices 

rather than separate petitions in both 

partner IP offices. Enhancements 

include a more user-friendly layout, 

addition of multilingual text, and a 

foundation for data collection that both 

satisfies the petition requirements and 

streamlines the process for partaking in 

the Expanded CSP program. 

DATES: The combined petition option 

and the related process will take effect 

on March 29, 2022. Each IP office will 

continue to grant no more than 400 

requests per year per partner office for 

the duration of the pilot, which is 

currently set to expire on October 31, 

2022. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Inquiries regarding any specific 

application participating in the pilot 

may be directed to Jessica Patterson, 

Senior Advisor and Director, 

International Worksharing, Planning, 

and Implementation; Office of 

International Patent Cooperation; at 

571–272–8828 or Jessica.Patterson@

uspto.gov. Any inquiry regarding this 

pilot program and the petition process 

can be emailed to csp@uspto.gov. 

Inquiries concerning this notice may be 

directed to Michael Arguello; 

Management and Program Analyst; 

International Worksharing, Planning, 

and Implementation; Office of 

International Patent Cooperation; at 

571–270–7876 or Michael.Arguello@

uspto.gov. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

I. Background 

The USPTO continually looks for 

ways to improve its worksharing pilot 

programs, including the Expanded CSP 

program. The Expanded CSP program 

provides applicants who cross-file with 

the USPTO and the JPO or the KIPO 

with search results from each office 

early in the examination process. It is 

designed to accelerate examination and 

provide the applicant with more 

comprehensive prior art by combining 

the search expertise of the USPTO and 

the JPO or the KIPO examiners before 

issuing a first office action. For 

additional details of this program, see 

Expanded Collaborative Search Pilot 

Program Extension, 86 FR 8183 

(February 4, 2021) (Expanded CSP 

extension notice). Feedback from 

applicants based in the United States, 

Korea, and Japan has cited the petition 

process as an area for improvement, 

specifically the requirement to petition 

each office separately. As a result, the 

USPTO collaborated with its partner IP 

offices, the JPO and the KIPO, to 

develop combined petition forms (PTO/ 

437–JP for the USPTO/JPO pilot 

program and PTO/437–KR for the 

USPTO/KIPO pilot program). 

Submitting a completed combined 

petition form to either the USPTO or the 

partner IP office (JPO or KIPO) will 

result in receipt of the form at both 

offices in the corresponding pilot and 

placement in the application files of 

both counterpart applications. 

The current petition option and 

process, in which an applicant files a 

petition or a request separately with 

each partner IP office (original petition 

option), remains available. Under the 

original petition option, an applicant 

must submit petition form PTO/SB/437 

to the USPTO to request CSP 

participation for the U.S. application 

and a separate submission to the partner 

IP office in the desired pilot to request 

CSP participation for a counterpart 

application. 

II. Overview of the Combined Petition 

Option 

Applicants need only submit one 

combined petition form to the USPTO 

or the partner IP office (JPO or KIPO). 

There are separate agreements between 

the USPTO and the JPO and the USPTO 

and the KIPO. Therefore, to request 

participation in the corresponding pilot 

between the USPTO and the JPO using 

this combined petition option, 

applicants must file the combined 

petition form PTO/437–JP with either 

the USPTO or the JPO. Likewise, to 

request participation in the 

corresponding pilot between the USPTO 

and the KIPO using this combined 

petition option, applicants must file the 

combined petition form PTO/437–KR 

with either the USPTO or the KIPO. 

However, if an application in a pilot 

program corresponds to more than one 

counterpart application in a partner IP 

office, the combined petition option 

cannot be used. In this situation, an 

applicant must use the original petition 

option to request participation in the 

Expanded CSP program. 

Under the combined petition option, 

use of the proper combined petition 

form will assist applicants in complying 

with the pilot program’s requirements, 

and will assist the USPTO in quickly 

identifying participating applications 

and the partner IP office. The combined 

petition forms for the USPTO/JPO pilot 

and the USPTO/KIPO pilot are 

multilingual. Both combined petition 

forms provide links to the requirements 

(with exceptions noted in section VI 

below) and conditions for entry into the 

respective pilot program for each 

partner IP office. As each office’s 

conditions for entry may differ, 

applicants should review the 

requirements of the relevant partner IP 

offices to ensure compliance. 

Forms PTO/437–JP and PTO/437–KR 

are available at www.uspto.gov/ 

CollaborativeSearch. The forms will 

also be available as Portable Document 

Format (PDF) fillable forms in EFS-Web 

and Patent Center and on the USPTO 

website at www.uspto.gov/patents/ 

apply/forms/forms-patent-applicationsfiled-or-after-september-16-2012. The 

Office of Management and Budget 

(OMB) has reviewed and approved the 

collection of information involved in 

this pilot program, under the Paperwork 

Reduction Act of 1995 (44 U.S.C. 3501 

et seq.), as part of a collection identified 

by OMB control number 0651–0079. 

Collection 0651–0079 is available at 

OMB’s Information Collection Review 

website, www.reginfo.gov/public/do/ 

PRAMain. No fee for the combined 

petition to make special under 37 CFR 

1.102 is required for participation in the 

Expanded CSP program. 

III. Filing a Combined Petition Form 

If opting to use a combined petition 

form, applicants must file a completed 

combined petition form (PTO/437–JP or 


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17996 Federal Register / Vol. 87, No. 60 / Tuesday, March 29, 2022 / Notices 

PTO/437–KR) for each pilot the 

applicant wishes to utilize. 

Combined petition form PTO/437–JP 

must either be directly filed in the U.S. 

application or directly with the JPO for 

the USPTO/JPO pilot program, and 

combined petition form PTO/437–KR 

must either be directly filed in the U.S. 

application or directly with the KIPO for 

the USPTO/KIPO pilot program. If the 

combined petition form is directly filed 

in the U.S. application, the applicant 

must file it using either EFS-Web or 

Patent Center. If the applicant directly 

files the combined petition form with 

the partner IP office, the combined 

petition form must be accompanied by 

supporting documents (e.g., an English 

translation of the claims from the 

counterpart application; a machine 

translation of the claims is acceptable). 

The corresponding partner IP office will 

then transmit the combined petition 

form and supporting documents to the 

USPTO. The applicant should not file 

the combined petition form directly 

with both the USPTO and the 

corresponding partner IP office. 

Based on the agreements between the 

USPTO and the partner IP offices, if the 

applicant directly files the combined 

petition form with the USPTO, then the 

USPTO must transmit the completed 

form and any accompanying supporting 

documents, along with the date of 

receipt, to the corresponding partner IP 

office. Additionally, if the applicant 

files the combined petition form directly 

with the JPO or the KIPO, then the office 

that received the filing must transmit 

the form and the accompanying 

supporting documents, along with its 

date of receipt, to the USPTO. The 

USPTO will place the combined 

petition form and the accompanying 

supporting documents in the file of the 

U.S. application. Incomplete combined 

petition forms will not be forwarded to 

the corresponding partner IP office and 

will be dismissed in accordance with 

the respective Memorandums of 

Cooperation between partner IP offices. 

Under the combined petition option, 

the IP partner offices have agreed to 

transmit the combined petition form to 

the corresponding partner IP office 

within 15 days of receipt from the 

applicant. This reduces the risk of the 

counterpart application being acted 

upon by an examiner in the partner IP 

office before that application enters the 

pilot program, which would result in 

both applications being denied entry 

into the Expanded CSP program. The 

request for participation in the 

Expanded CSP program must be granted 

by both the IP office in which the 

request is directly filed and the partner 

IP office for both applications prior to 

any examination in either office. 

To the extent that the combined 

petition form forwarded to the USPTO 

from the partner IP office does not 

comply with the requirements of 37 CFR 

1.4(d)(2) and (d)(3), and 1.6(a), these 

requirements are waived for certain 

elements. Specifically, with respect to 

37 CFR 1.4(d)(2), a forwarded combined 

petition form containing an S-signature 

will not be required to be filed by 

facsimile transmission, via the USPTO’s 

electronic filing system (i.e., EFS-Web 

or Patent Center), or on paper. With 

respect to 37 CFR 1.4(d)(3), a forwarded 

combined petition form containing a 

graphic representation of a handwritten 

signature or an S-signature will not be 

required to be filed via the USPTO’s 

electronic filing system. With respect to 

37 CFR 1.6(a), a forwarded combined 

petition form will be accorded a receipt 

date even though it was not received at 

the USPTO by mail, filed via the 

USPTO’s electronic filing system, or 

hand-delivered to the USPTO. The U.S. 

receipt date of the combined petition 

form will either be the actual date that 

the combined petition form is received 

at the USPTO via the USPTO’s 

electronic filing system or the date the 

combined petition form is transmitted to 

the USPTO from the partner IP office, 

which may not be the same as the 

receipt date in the partner IP office. 

IV. Requirements for Participation in 

the Expanded CSP 

To be accepted into the Expanded 

CSP program, applicants who use the 

combined petition option must meet all 

the requirements of the program that are 

set forth in section III of the Expanded 

CSP extension notice, except with the 

following modifications. 

Under the combined petition option, 

the combined petition form PTO/437–JP 

or PTO/437–KR must be used instead of 

form PTO/SB/437, and the combined 

petition form, as discussed above, must 

be submitted to either the USPTO or the 

partner IP office (the JPO or the KIPO). 

Separate petitions are not required to be 

filed in both the USPTO and the partner 

IP office. The combined petition form 

PTO/437–JP or PTO/437–KR also 

includes an express written consent 

under 35 U.S.C. 122(c) for the USPTO 

to receive the combined petition form (if 

filed directly with the corresponding 

partner IP office) and to accept and 

consider prior art references and 

comments from the designated partner 

IP office during the examination of the 

U.S. application. The combined petition 

form also includes written authorization 

for the USPTO to forward the form (if 

filed directly with the USPTO) to the 

corresponding partner IP office and to 

provide to the designated IP partner 

office, before a first office action on the 

merits, access to the participating U.S. 

application’s bibliographic data and 

search results, in accordance with 35 

U.S.C. 122(a) and 37 CFR 1.14(c). No 

other consents are required. 

V. Treatment of a Combined Petition 

Form 

The combined petition form filed 

directly or indirectly in the U.S. 

application will be treated in the 

manner set forth in section IV of the 

Expanded CSP extension notice. 

VI. Requirement for Restriction 

The requirement for restriction set 

forth in section V of the Expanded CSP 

extension notice remains the same for 

the combined petition option. 

VII. First Action on the Merits 

Under the Expanded CSP program, 

the USPTO examiner will consider all 

exchanged search results. However, 

search results that are not received by 

the USPTO within four months from the 

date the USPTO granted the petition 

may not be included in the first action 

on the merits (FAOM). The examiner 

will prepare and issue an Office action 

and notify the applicant if any 

designated partner IP office did not 

provide search results prior to the 

issuance of the Office action. Once an 

FAOM issues, the application will no 

longer be treated as special under the 

Expanded CSP program. 

The USPTO will continue to 

cooperate with applicants, IP 

stakeholders, and partner IP offices to 

improve the CSP process. More 

information on the CSP is available at 

www.uspto.gov/CollaborativeSearch. 

Andrew Hirshfeld, 

Commissioner for Patents, Performing the 

Functions and Duties of the Under Secretary 

of Commerce for Intellectual Property and 

Director of the United States Patent and 

Trademark Office. 

[FR Doc. 2022–06602 Filed 3–28–22; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 3510–16–P 

BUREAU OF CONSUMER FINANCIAL 

PROTECTION 

[Docket No. CFPB–2022–0003] 

Notice and Request for Comment 

Regarding Fees Imposed by Providers 

of Consumer Financial Products or 

Services 

AGENCY: Bureau of Consumer Financial 

Protection. 


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