36530 Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 130 / Monday, July 12, 2021 / Notices 

entering either the title of the collection 

or the OMB Control Number 0648–0373. 

Sheleen Dumas, 

Department PRA Clearance Officer, Office of 

the Chief Information Officer, Commerce 

Department. 

[FR Doc. 2021–14740 Filed 7–9–21; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 3510–22–P 

DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE 

National Oceanic and Atmospheric 

Administration 

[RTID 0648–XB218] 

Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management 

Council (MAFMC); Public Meeting 

AGENCY: National Marine Fisheries 

Service (NMFS), National Oceanic and 

Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), 

Commerce. 

ACTION: Notice; public meeting. 

SUMMARY: The Mid-Atlantic Fishery 

Management Council’s (Council) 

Bluefish Advisory Panel will hold a 

public meeting, jointly with the Atlantic 

States Marine Fisheries Commission 

(ASMFC) Bluefish Advisory Panel. 

DATES: The meeting will be held on 

Wednesday, July 28, 2021, from 2 p.m. 

until 4 p.m. For agenda details, see 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION. 

ADDRESSES: The meeting will be held 

via webinar with a telephone-only 

connection option. Details on the 

proposed agenda, webinar listen-in 

access, and briefing materials can be 

accessed on the Council’s website at: 

www.mafmc.org. 

Council address: Mid-Atlantic Fishery 

Management Council, 800 N State 

Street, Suite 201, Dover, DE 19901; 

telephone: (302) 674–2331; 

www.mafmc.org. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Christopher M. Moore, Ph.D., Executive 

Director, Mid-Atlantic Fishery 

Management Council, telephone: (302) 

526–5255. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The MidAtlantic Fishery Management Council’s 

Bluefish Advisory Panel will meet 

jointly with the Atlantic States Marine 

Fisheries Commission’s Bluefish 

Advisory Panel via webinar. The 

purpose of this meeting is to welcome 

new Advisory Panel members, review 

recent management track stock 

assessment information for bluefish, and 

to review the recommendations of the 

Scientific and Statistical Committee 

(SSC) and Monitoring Committee for 

2022–23 catch and landings limits. 

Special Accommodations 

The meeting is physically accessible 

to people with disabilities. Requests for 

sign language interpretation or other 

auxiliary aids should be directed to 

Kathy Collins at the Council Office, 

(302) 526–5253, at least 5 days prior to 

the meeting date. 

Authority: 16 U.S.C. 1801 et seq. 

Dated: July 7, 2021. 

Tracey L. Thompson, 

Acting Deputy Director, Office of Sustainable 

Fisheries, National Marine Fisheries Service. 

[FR Doc. 2021–14750 Filed 7–9–21; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 3510–22–P 

DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE 

United States Patent and Trademark 

Office 

[Docket No.: PTO–P–2020–0027] 

Extension of the Fast-Track Appeals 

Pilot Program 

AGENCY: United States Patent and 

Trademark Office, Department of 

Commerce. 

ACTION: Notice. 

SUMMARY: The United States Patent and 

Trademark Office (USPTO) is extending 

the Fast-Track Appeals Pilot Program, 

initiated on July 2, 2020, which 

provides for the advancement of 

applications out of their turn in the ex 

parte appeals phase of patent 

prosecution before the Patent Trial and 

Appeal Board (PTAB or Board). The 

Fast-Track Appeals Pilot Program 

permits an appellant who has filed an 

ex parte appeal and received a notice 

that the appeal has been docketed to file 

a petition to expedite the review of the 

appeal. The Fast-Track Appeals Pilot 

Program sets a target of reaching a 

decision on an ex parte appeal within 

six months from the date that the appeal 

is entered into the program. 

DATES: 

Applicable Date: July 12, 2021. 

Duration: The Fast-Track Appeals 

Pilot Program will run until July 2, 

2022. The USPTO may extend the FastTrack Appeals Pilot Program (with or 

without modification) on either a 

temporary or a permanent basis, or may 

discontinue the program after that date. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Steven Bartlett, PTAB, by telephone at 

571–272–9797 or by email at 

fasttrackappeals@uspto.gov. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Appeals to 

the Board are normally taken up for 

decision in the order in which they are 

docketed. See USPTO Standard 

Operating Procedure 1, Assignment of 

judges to panels (Sept. 20, 2018), 

available at www.uspto.gov/patents/ 

ptab/resources. Currently, the average 

appeal pendency is about 13 months, 

down from 15 months in 2020, and from 

30 months in 2015. See the PTAB 

statistics available at www.uspto.gov/ 

patents/ptab/statistics. However, a 

small number of appeals are advanced 

out of turn due to a special status 

reflecting, for example, that the 

appealed case is a reissue application or 

a reexamination proceeding, or in light 

of an inventor’s advanced age or poor 

health. 

On July 2, 2020, the PTAB adopted, 

on a temporary basis, the Fast-Track 

Appeals Pilot Program, under which an 

appellant may have an ex parte appeal 

to the Board advanced out of turn by 

filing a petition under 37 CFR 41.3, 

accompanied by the petition fee set 

forth in 37 CFR 41.20(a). See Fast-Track 

Appeals Pilot Program, 85 FR 39888 

(July 2, 2020) (Fast-Track Notice). The 

Fast-Track Appeals Pilot Program 

permits an appellant to accelerate the 

Board’s decision on an ex parte appeal, 

hastening the pace at which 

patentability determinations are made 

and products or services embodying 

those patented inventions are brought to 

the marketplace, and thus spurring 

follow-on innovation, economic growth, 

and job creation. The USPTO provides 

a form for the Fast-Track petition, Form 

PTO/SB/451, which is available on the 

USPTO’s website at www.uspto.gov/ 

patents/apply/forms/forms-patentapplications-filed-or-after-september16-2012. 

The Fast-Track Notice required, inter 

alia, that a petition be filed before July 

2, 2021, to participate in the program. 

The Fast-Track Notice also set a 

maximum number of 500 appeals that 

may be advanced through Fast-Track 

petitions. 

The Fast-Track Appeals Pilot Program 

is hereby extended to accept petitions 

for advancing out of turn (according 

‘‘Fast-Track status’’ to) ex parte appeals 

through July 2, 2022. The requirements 

for the program remain the same as 

those set forth in the original notice (see 

Fast-Track Notice, 85 FR 39888), with 

the following modification regarding the 

petition limit. 

The upper limit of 500 total granted 

Fast-Track petitions, as set forth in the 

Fast-Track Notice, is no longer 

applicable. To maintain the Board’s 

ability to provide a faster appeal option 

while timely resolving other appeals, 

however, the number of granted 

petitions in the Fast-Track Appeals Pilot 

Program remains limited to 125 granted 

petitions per quarter. If a quarterly limit 


khammond on DSKJM1Z7X2PROD with NOTICES
Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 130 / Monday, July 12, 2021 / Notices 36531 

is reached, the PTAB retains the 

flexibility to accept additional petitions, 

either for consideration in that quarter 

or to be held in abeyance for 

consideration in the next quarter. 

The USPTO tracks the number of 

granted petitions, the average time to 

answer petitions, and the average time 

to render a Board decision on the merits 

of the ex parte appeal after a petition 

grant. Current information and statistics 

may be viewed on the PTAB website at 

www.uspto.gov/PTABFastTrack. 

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. 2021–14615 Filed 7–9–21; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 3510–16–P 

CORPORATION FOR NATIONAL AND 

COMMUNITY SERVICE 

Notice Inviting Public Input on 

Executive Order 13985 

AGENCY: Corporation for National and 

Community Service. 

ACTION: Request for comment. 

SUMMARY: In accordance with Executive 

Order 13985 of January 20, 2021, the 

Corporation for National and 

Community Service, operating as 

AmeriCorps, is inviting public comment 

from any interested party, including 

current and former AmeriCorps program 

award recipients, regarding any barriers 

that they, or the communities they 

served, faced in accessing benefits and 

services offered by AmeriCorps’ 

programs. 

DATES: To be considered, public 

comments must be received 

electronically no later than midnight 

eastern standard time (EST) on August 

2, 2021. 

ADDRESSES: Public comments should be 

submitted online at http://

www.regulations.gov; search for 

‘‘Request for Information (RFI) from 

Non-Federal Stakeholders: Advancing 

Racial Equity and Support for 

Underserved Communities.’’ Comments 

submitted electronically, including 

attachments, will be posted to the 

docket unchanged and available to view 

by the public. Documents and 

information supporting your comment 

may be submitted as attachments. Please 

provide your contact information or 

organization name on the web-based 

form for possible follow-up from 

AmeriCorps. There is a 5,000-character 

limit on comments and maximum 

number (10) of attached files and 

maximum size (10 MB) of each attached 

file. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Kiara Rhodes, Honors Attorney, 

AmeriCorps, at krhodes@cns.gov or 

(202) 937–6965. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: On 

January 20, 2021, President Biden 

signed Executive Order 13985, 

‘‘Advancing Racial Equity and Support 

for Underserved Communities Through 

the Federal Government,’’ to address 

racial, economic, and other disparities 

faced by underserved communities in 

the United States. The Order requires 

Federal agencies to conduct an equity 

assessment. In furthering this Agency’s 

commitment to bringing together and 

serving all communities, AmeriCorps 

seeks general public input on the 

following: 

1. Potential barriers that underserved 

communities and individuals may face 

to enrollment in and access to benefits 

and services in AmeriCorps programs; 

2. Potential barriers that underserved 

communities and individuals may face 

in taking advantage of Agency 

procurement and contracting 

opportunities; 

3. Whether new policies, regulations, 

or guidance documents may be 

necessary to advance equity in Agency 

actions and programs; and 

4. Knowledge of any offices or 

divisions within the Agency that are 

responsible for advancing civil rights or 

whose mandates specifically include 

serving underrepresented or 

disadvantaged communities. 

Dated: July 7, 2021. 

Fernando Laguarda, 

General Counsel. 

[FR Doc. 2021–14735 Filed 7–9–21; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 6050–28–P 

DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION 

[Docket No.: ED–2021–SCC–0100] 

Agency Information Collection 

Activities; Comment Request; 

Endowment Excise Tax: Allocation 

Reduction Waiver 

AGENCY: Office of Postsecondary 

Education (OPE), Department of 

Education (ED). 

ACTION: Notice. 

SUMMARY: In accordance with the 

Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, ED is 

requesting the Office of Management 

and Budget (OMB) to conduct an 

emergency review of a new information 

collection. 

DATES: The Department is requesting 

emergency processing and OMB 

approval for this information collection 

by July 26, 2021; and therefore, the 

Department is requesting public 

comments by July 23, 2021. A regular 

clearance process is also hereby being 

initiated to provide the public with the 

opportunity to comment under the full 

comment period. Interested persons are 

invited to submit comments on or before 

September 10, 2021. 

ADDRESSES: To access and review all the 

documents related to the information 

collection listed in this notice, please 

use http://www.regulations.gov by 

searching the Docket ID number ED– 

2021–SCC–0100. Comments submitted 

in response to this notice should be 

submitted electronically through the 

Federal eRulemaking Portal at http://

www.regulations.gov by selecting the 

Docket ID number or via postal mail, 

commercial delivery, or hand delivery. 

If the regulations.gov site is not 

available to the public for any reason, 

ED will temporarily accept comments at 

ICDocketMgr@ed.gov. Please include the 

docket ID number and the title of the 

information collection request when 

requesting documents or submitting 

comments. Please note that comments 

submitted by fax or email and those 

submitted after the comment period will 

not be accepted. Written requests for 

information or comments submitted by 

postal mail or delivery should be 

addressed to the PRA Coordinator of the 

Strategic Collections and Clearance 

Governance and Strategy Division, U.S. 

Department of Education, 400 Maryland 

Ave. SW, LBJ, Room 6W208C, 

Washington, DC 20202–8240. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: For 

specific questions related to collection 

activities, please contact Karen Epps, 

202–453–6337. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The 

Department of Education (ED), in 

accordance with the Paperwork 

Reduction Act of 1995 (PRA) (44 U.S.C. 

3506(c)(2)(A)), provides the general 

public and Federal agencies with an 

opportunity to comment on proposed, 

revised, and continuing collections of 

information. This helps the Department 

assess the impact of its information 

collection requirements and minimize 

the public’s reporting burden. It also 

helps the public understand the 

Department’s information collection 

requirements and provide the requested 

data in the desired format. ED is 

soliciting comments on the proposed 

information collection request (ICR) that 

is described below. The Department of 

Education is especially interested in 

public comment addressing the 


khammond on DSKJM1Z7X2PROD with NOTICES