33686 Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 120 / Friday, June 25, 2021 / Notices 

P.O. Box 1450, Alexandria, VA 22313– 

1450. 

Kimberly Hardy, 

Information Collections Officer, Office of the 

Chief Administrative Officer, United States 

Patent and Trademark Office. 

[FR Doc. 2021–13502 Filed 6–24–21; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 3510–16–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 Prosecution Highway 

(PPH) Program 

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 comment 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 April 16, 2021 during a 60- 

day comment period. This notice allows 

for an additional 30 days for public 

comments. 

Agency: United States Patent and 

Trademark Office, Department of 

Commerce. 

Title: Patent Prosecution Highway 

(PPH) Program. 

OMB Control Number: 0651–0058. 

Form Numbers: 

• PTO/SB/20GLBL (Request for 

Participation in the Global/IP5 PPH 

Pilot Program in the USPTO) 

• PTO/SB/20BR (Request for 

Participation in the Patent Prosecution 

Highway (PPH) Pilot Program Between 

the Brazilian National Institute of 

Industrial Property (INPI) and the 

USPTO) 

• PTO/SB/20CZ (Request for 

Participation in the Patent Prosecution 

Highway (PPH) Pilot Program Between 

the Industrial Property Office of the 

Czech Republic (IPOCZ) and the 

USPTO) 

• PTO/SB/20MX (Request for 

Participation in the Patent Prosecution 

Highway (PPH) Pilot Program Between 

the Mexican Institute of Industrial 

Property (TMPI) and the USPTO) 

• PTO/SB/20NI (Request for 

Participation in the Patent Prosecution 

Highway (PPH) Pilot Program Between 

the Nicaraguan Registry of Intellectual 

Property (NRIP) and the USPTO) 

• PTO/SB/20PH (Request for 

Participation in the Patent Prosecution 

Highway (PPH) Pilot Program Between 

the Intellectual Property Office of the 

Philippines (IPOPH) and the USPTO) 

• PTO/SB/20RO (Request for 

Participation in the Patent Prosecution 

Highway (PPH) Pilot Program Between 

the Romanian State Office of Inventions 

and Trademarks (OSIM) and the 

USPTO) 

• PTO/SB/20SA (Request for 

Participation in the Patent Prosecution 

Highway (PPH) Pilot Program between 

the Saudi Authority for Intellectual 

Property of the Kingdom of Saudi 

Arabia (SAIP) and the USPTO) 

• PTO/SB/20TW (Request for 

Participation in the Patent Prosecution 

Highway (PPH) Pilot Program Between 

the Taiwan Intellectual Property Office 

(TIPO) and the USPTO) 

Type of Review: Extension and 

revision of a currently approved 

information collection. 

Estimated Number of Respondents: 

3,567 respondents per year. 

Estimated Number of Responses: 

7,090 responses per year. 

Estimated Time per Response: The 

USPTO estimates that it will take the 

public approximately 2 hours to 

complete a response. This includes the 

time to gather the necessary 

information, create the documents, and 

submit the completed item to the 

USPTO. 

Estimated Total Annual Respondent 

Burden Hours: 14,180 hours. 

Estimated Total Annual Non-Hour 

Cost Burden: $0. 

Needs and Uses: The Patent 

Prosecution Highway (PPH) is a 

framework in which an application 

whose claims have been determined to 

be patentable by an Office of Earlier 

Examination (OEE) is eligible to go 

through an accelerated examination in 

an Office of Later Examination (OLE) 

with a simple procedure upon an 

applicant’s request. By leveraging the 

search and examination work product of 

the OEE, PPH programs (1) deliver 

lower prosecution costs, (2) support 

applicants in their efforts to obtain 

stable patent rights efficiently around 

the world, and (3) reduce the search and 

examination burden, while improving 

the examination quality, of participating 

patent offices. 

In 2014, the USPTO and several other 

offices acted to consolidate and replace 

existing PPH programs, with the goal of 

streamlining the PPH process for both 

offices and applicants. To that end, the 

USPTO and other offices established the 

Global PPH pilot program and the IP5 

PPH pilot program. Both the Global PPH 

and the IP5 PPH pilot programs are 

running concurrently and are 

substantially identical, differing only 

with regard to their respective 

participating offices. The USPTO is 

participating in both the Global PPH 

pilot program and the IP5 PPH pilot 

program. For USPTO applications, the 

Global PPH and IP5 PPH pilot programs 

supersede any prior PPH program 

between the USPTO and each Global 

PPH and IP5 PPH participating office. 

Any existing PPH programs between the 

USPTO and offices that are not 

participating in either the Global PPH 

pilot program or the IP5 PPH pilot 

program remain in effect. 

This information collection covers 

data gathered through the Request for 

Participation in the Patent Prosecution 

Highway (PPH) Pilot Program, which 

the public uses to request an accelerated 

examination within the PPH provisions 

(35 U.S.C. 119). 

Affected Public: Private sector; 

individuals or households. 

Frequency: On occasion. 

Respondent’s Obligation: Required to 

obtain or retain benefits. 

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 0651–0058. 

Further information can be obtained 

by: 

• Email: InformationCollection@

uspto.gov. Include ‘‘0651–0058 

information request’’ in the subject line 

of the message. 

• Mail: Kimberly Hardy, Office of the 

Chief Administrative Officer, United 

States Patent and Trademark Office, 

P.O. Box 1450, Alexandria, VA 22313– 

1450. 

Kimberly Hardy, 

Information Collections Officer, Office of the 

Chief Administrative Officer, United States 

Patent and Trademark Office. 

[FR Doc. 2021–13535 Filed 6–24–21; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 3510–16–P 


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