Federal Register / Vol. 70, No. 190 / Monday, October 3, 2005 / Notices 57567 

DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE 

Patent and Trademark Office 

Patent and Trademark Financial 

Transactions (Formerly Payment of 

Patent and Trademark Office Fees by 

Credit Card) 

ACTION: Proposed collection; comment 

request. 

SUMMARY: The United States Patent and 

Trademark Office (USPTO), as part of its 

continuing effort to reduce paperwork 

and respondent burden, invites the 

general public and other Federal 

agencies to take this opportunity to 

comment on the continuing information 

collection, as required by the Paperwork 

Reduction Act of 1995, Public Law 104–

13 (44 U.S.C. 3506(c)(2)(A)). 

DATES: Written comments must be 

submitted on or before December 2, 

2005. 

ADDRESSES: You may submit comments 

by any of the following methods: 

• E-mail: Susan.Brown@uspto.gov. 

Include ‘‘0651–0043 comment’’ in the 

subject line of the message. 

• Fax: 571–273–0112, marked to the 

attention of Susan Brown. 

• Mail: Susan K. Brown, Records 

Officer, Office of the Chief Information 

Officer, Office of Data Architecture and 

Services, Data Administration Division, 

U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, P.O. 

Box 1450, Alexandria, VA 22313–1450. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Requests for additional information 

should be directed to Tamara McClure, 

Office of Finance, U.S. Patent and 

Trademark Office, P.O. Box 1450, 

Alexandria, VA 22313–1450; by 

telephone at 571–272–6345; or by e-mail 

to Tamara.McClure@uspto.gov. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION

I. Abstract 

Under 35 U.S.C. 41 and 15 U.S.C. 

1113, the USPTO charges fees for 

processing and other services related to 

patents, trademarks, and information 

products. The provisions of 35 U.S.C. 41 

and 15 U.S.C. 1113 are implemented in 

37 CFR 1.16–1.28, 2.6–2.7, and 2.206–

2.209. 

Under 37 CFR 1.23(b) and 2.207(b), 

customers may use a credit card to pay 

patent or trademark fees or to order 

information products from the USPTO. 

Payments of fees made by credit card 

must specify the amount to be charged 

and other information that is necessary 

to process the charge, such as a billing 

address (and an authorized signature 

when submitting a paper Credit Card 

Payment Form). The USPTO will not 

accept a general authorization to charge 

fees to a credit card. Customers 

submitting fee payments must also 

provide information concerning the 

purpose of the fee so that the USPTO is 

able to (1) apply the fee to the particular 

application, patent, trademark 

registration, or other proceeding, 

service, or product; and (2) determine 

whether the person has submitted the 

appropriate fee(s) required by law or 

regulation. 

This information collection includes 

the Credit Card Payment Form (PTO–

2038), which provides the public with 

a convenient way to submit a credit card 

payment for fees related to a patent, 

trademark, or information product. 

Customers may also submit credit card 

payments via the Electronic Credit Card 

Payment Form (PTO–2231) when using 

online systems provided by the USPTO 

for paying fees related to patents, 

trademarks, or information products. 

These systems are accessible through 

the USPTO web site at http:// 

www.uspto.gov. At the top of the site, 

click on the ‘‘eBusiness’’ link to access 

the online systems. For online credit 

card payments, customers must use the 

Electronic Credit Card Payment Form 

provided on the USPTO web site. 

Under 37 CFR 1.25 and 2.208, 

customers may establish deposit 

accounts at the USPTO for paying 

patent and trademark fees or purchasing 

information products. Deposit accounts 

eliminate the need to submit a check, 

credit card information, or other form of 

payment for each transaction with the 

USPTO. Additionally, in the event that 

a fee amount due is miscalculated, 

customers may authorize the USPTO to 

charge any remaining balance to the 

deposit account and therefore avoid the 

potential consequences of 

underpayment. Customers may establish 

a deposit account by completing a 

Deposit Account Application Form 

(PTO–2232) and sending the required 

information, initial deposit, and service 

fee to the USPTO. 

As customers use their deposit 

accounts to make payments, they may 

deposit funds to replenish their 

accounts by mailing a check to the 

USPTO or making a deposit online via 

an electronic funds transfer (EFT) using 

the Electronic Deposit Account 

Replenishment Form (PTO–2233) 

available at the USPTO web site. No 

official form is provided for mailed 

replenishments. Customers may simply 

send their checks to the USPTO with 

instructions specifying their deposit 

account number. Customers may also 

close their deposit accounts by 

submitting a written request. The 

remaining balance in the deposit 

account will be refunded after a sixweek waiting period with no account 

activity to ensure that all outstanding 

charges have been applied before the 

account is closed. 

In addition to credit cards and deposit 

accounts, customers may also use EFT 

to make online fee payments. In order 

to make payments to the USPTO via 

EFT, customers must first establish a 

user profile with their banking 

information. Once their profile is 

created, customers may use their User 

ID and password to perform EFT 

transactions. To set up a user profile, 

customers must complete and submit 

the EFT User Profile Form (PTO–2236) 

through the USPTO web site. 

Under 37 CFR 1.26 and 2.209, the 

USPTO may refund fees paid by mistake 

or in excess of the required amount. For 

refund amounts of $25 or less, 

customers must submit a written request 

to the Refund Branch of the USPTO 

Office of Finance. No official form is 

provided for these refund requests. 

The Deposit Account Application 

Form (PTO–2232), Deposit Account 

Replenishments, Electronic Deposit 

Account Replenishment Form (PTO–

2233), Deposit Account Closure Request 

Form (PTO–2234), EFT User Profile 

Form (PTO–2236), and Refund Requests 

are being added to this collection. The 

USPTO does not provide an official 

form for paper Deposit Account 

Replenishments or Refund Requests. 

In order to protect confidentiality, the 

USPTO will not include the credit card 

information submitted using the paper 

Credit Card Payment Form (PTO–2038) 

or Electronic Credit Card Payment Form 

(PTO–2231) among the patent or 

trademark records open to public 

inspection. The USPTO does not require 

customers to use the paper Credit Card 

Payment Form when paying fees by 

credit card, but using this form for nonelectronic payments is strongly 

encouraged. If a customer supplies 

credit card information on a form or 

document (e.g., in correspondence 

related to a patent or trademark) other 

than a credit card payment form 

provided by the USPTO, the credit card 

information may become part of a patent 

or trademark file that is open to public 

inspection. If credit card information is 

submitted on a form or document other 

than a credit card payment form 

provided by the USPTO, the USPTO 

will not be liable if the credit card 

information becomes public knowledge. 

II. Method of Collection 

By mail, facsimile, hand delivery, or 

electronically over the Internet to the 

USPTO. 

57568 Federal Register / Vol. 70, No. 190 / Monday, October 3, 2005 / Notices 

III. Data 

OMB Number: 0651–0043. 

Form Number(s): PTO–2038, PTO–

2231, PTO–2232, PTO–2233, PTO–2234, 

PTO–2236. 

Type of Review: Revision of a 

currently approved collection. 

Affected Public: Individuals or 

households; businesses or other forprofits; not-for-profit institutions; farms; 

the Federal Government; and state, local 

or tribal governments. 

Estimated Number of Respondents: 

1,928,705 responses per year. 

Estimated Time Per Response: The 

USPTO estimates that it will take the 

public approximately 2 minutes (0.03 

hours) to gather the necessary 

information, prepare, and submit the 

items in this collection related to credit 

card payments, deposit accounts, EFT 

user profiles, and refund requests. 

Estimated Total Annual Respondent 

Burden Hours: 57,862 hours per year. 

Estimated Total Annual Respondent 

Cost Burden: $2,488,066 per year. The 

USPTO expects that 75% of the 

submissions for this information 

collection will be prepared by fee 

administrators/coordinators and that 

25% of the submissions will be 

prepared by paraprofessionals. Using 

those proportions and the estimated 

rates of $30 per hour for fee 

administrators/coordinators and $81 per 

hour for paraprofessionals, the USPTO 

estimates that the average hourly rate for 

all respondents will be approximately 

$43 per hour. Using this estimated rate 

of $43 per hour, the USPTO estimates 

that the respondent cost burden for 

submitting the information in this 

collection will be approximately 

$2,488,066 per year. 

Item 

Estimated time 

for response 

(minutes) 

Estimated 

annual 

responses 

Estimated 

annual burden 

hours 

Credit Card Payment Form (PTO-2038) ......................................................................... 2 863,389 25,902 

Electronic Credit Card Payment Form (PTO–2231) ....................................................... 2 1,017,322 30,520 

Deposit Account Application Form (PTO–2232) ............................................................. 2 298 9 

Deposit Account Replenishment ..................................................................................... 2 20,837 625 

Electronic Deposit Account Replenishment Form (PTO–2233) ...................................... 2 17,664 530 

Deposit Account Closure Request Form (PTO–2234) .................................................... 2 132 4 

EFT User Profile Form (PTO–2236) ............................................................................... 2 2,850 86 

Refund Request ............................................................................................................... 2 6,213 186 

Total .......................................................................................................................... ............................ 1,928,705 57,862 

Estimated Total Annual Non-hour 

Respondent Cost Burden: $235,755. 

There are no capital start-up costs or 

maintenance costs associated with this 

information collection. However, this 

collection does have associated service 

fees for deposit accounts and returned 

payments, postage costs for mailing 

submissions to the USPTO, and 

recordkeeping costs related to electronic 

credit card payments and electronic 

deposit account replenishments. 

There are service fees for setting up a 

deposit account at the USPTO, for not 

maintaining the minimum balance 

required for the deposit account, and for 

returned payments. The service charge 

to establish a deposit account is $10, 

and the USPTO estimates that it 

processes 298 Deposit Account 

Application Forms annually, for a total 

of $2,980 per year. There is also a $25 

service charge for deposit accounts that 

are below the minimum balance ($1,000 

minimum balance for an unrestricted 

deposit account or $300 minimum 

balance for a restricted deposit account) 

at the end of the month, and the USPTO 

estimates that it assesses a total of 

$100,000 in low balance service charges 

per year. There is a $50 service charge 

for processing a payment refused 

(including a check returned ‘‘unpaid’’) 

or charged back by a financial 

institution. The USPTO estimates that it 

assesses 456 of these returned payment 

charges annually, for a total of $22,800 

per year. The total estimated service fees 

for this collection are $125,780 per year. 

Customers may incur postage costs 

when submitting the Credit Card 

Payment Form and other paper forms or 

requests to the USPTO by mail. 

Customers generally send the Credit 

Card Payment Form to the USPTO along 

with other documents related to the fee 

or service being paid for by credit card, 

but some customers may submit just the 

Credit Card Payment Form without 

additional supporting documents. The 

USPTO estimates that roughly 5 percent 

of the 863,389 paper Credit Card 

Payment Forms submitted annually may 

be mailed in by themselves, 

approximately 43,169 per year. The 

USPTO estimates that it will receive an 

additional 27,480 submissions per year 

that may be mailed, including Deposit 

Account Application Forms, Deposit 

Account Replenishments, Deposit 

Account Closure Requests, and Refund 

Requests, for a total of 70,649 mailed 

submissions per year. The USPTO 

estimates that the first-class postage cost 

for a mailed submission will be 37 

cents, for a total postage cost of 

approximately $26,140 per year. 

Customers using the Electronic Credit 

Card Payment Form or the Electronic 

Deposit Account Replenishment Form 

may incur recordkeeping costs from 

printing a copy of the electronic receipt 

confirming their successful online 

transaction. The USPTO estimates that 

it will take 5 seconds (0.001 hours) to 

print a copy of the confirmation receipt 

and that approximately 1,034,986 

submissions per year will use the 

Electronic Credit Card Payment Form or 

the Electronic Deposit Account 

Replenishment Form, for a total 

recordkeeping burden of 1,035 hours 

per year. Using the paraprofessional rate 

of $81 per hour, the USPTO estimates 

that the recordkeeping cost associated 

with this collection will be 

approximately $83,835 per year. 

The total non-hour respondent cost 

burden for this collection in the form of 

service fees, postage costs, and 

recordkeeping costs is estimated to be 

$235,755 per year. 

IV. Request for Comments 

Comments are invited on: (a) Whether 

the proposed collection of information 

is necessary for the proper performance 

of the functions of the agency, including 

whether the information shall have 

practical utility; (b) the accuracy of the 

agency’s estimate of the burden 

(including hours and cost) of the 

proposed collection of information; (c) 

ways to enhance the quality, utility, and 

clarity of the information to be 

collected; and (d) ways to minimize the 

burden of the collection of information 

on respondents, e.g., the use of 

automated collection techniques or 

other forms of information technology. 

Comments submitted in response to 

this notice will be summarized or 

included in the request for OMB 

Federal Register / Vol. 70, No. 190 / Monday, October 3, 2005 / Notices 57569 

approval of this information collection; 

they also will become a matter of public 

record. 

Dated: September 26, 2005. 

Susan K. Brown, 

Records Officer, USPTO, Office of the Chief 

Information Officer, Office of Data 

Architecture and Services, Data 

Administration Division. 

[FR Doc. 05–19683 Filed 9–30–05; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 3510–16–P 

COMMODITY FUTURES TRADING 

COMMISSION 

Sunshine Act Meetings 

FEDERAL REGISTER CITATION OF PREVIOUS

ANNOUNCEMENT: 70 FR 180. 

PREVIOUSLY ANNOUNCED TIME AND DATE OF

THE MEETING: 11 a.m., Monday, October 

3, 2005. 

CHANGES IN THE MEETING: The closed 

meeting to discuss a Derivatives 

Clearing Organization Review has been 

canceled. 

CONTACT PERSON FOR MORE INFORMATION: 

Jean A. Webb, 202–418–5100. 

Jean A. Webb, 

Secretary of the Commission. 

[FR Doc. 05–19822 Filed 9–29–05; 12:29 pm] 

BILLING CODE 6351–01–M 

DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE 

Department of the Army; Corps of 

Engineers 

Intent To Prepare a Draft 

Environmental Impact Statement, 

Programmatic Sediment Management 

Plan, Lower Snake River Reservoirs, in 

the States of Washington and Idaho 

AGENCY: Department of the Army, U.S. 

Army Corps of Engineers, DoD. 

ACTION: Notice of intent. 

SUMMARY: The U.S. Army Corps of 

Engineers (Corps) intends to prepare an 

Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) 

for a Programmatic Sediment 

Management Plan that will address 

sediment management within the four 

lower Snake River reservoirs and that 

portion of McNary reservoir contained 

within the lower Snake River The plan 

will identify and evaluate ways the 

Corps can manage sediment within 

these reservoirs and examine the 

sediment input (sources) on a 

programmatic basis in the near-term, 

mid-term, and long-term. The reservoirs 

extend from the mouth of the Snake 

River upstream to the communities of 

Lewiston, Idaho, and Clarkston, 

Washington; and include the lower 2 

miles of the Clearwater River from its 

confluence with the Snake River at 

Lewiston upstream to the U.S. Highway 

12 Bridge. In the plan the Corps will 

also include all tributaries that could 

significantly contribute sediment to the 

lower Snake River. The Corps is 

preparing this plan because sediment 

management has been an ongoing 

maintenance issue since the completion 

of Ice Harbor Dam, the first dam and 

reservoir on the lower Snake River, in 

1961. Rather than addressing sedimentrelated problems on a case-by-case 

basis, the Corps has determined that it 

would be more effective to evaluate 

sediment management as a whole and 

on a watershed basis. The intent of the 

plan is to identify ways to reduce the 

amount of sediment entering the 

reservoirs, identify how to manage the 

sediment once it enters the reservoirs, 

and identify possible changes to 

structures or operations to reduce 

maintenance and associated impacts 

while still providing for authorized 

project purposes, including navigation. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Mr. 

Carl Christianson, Project Manager, 

Walla Walla District, Corps of 

Engineers, CENWW–PM–PD, 201 North 

Third Avenue, Walla Walla, WA 99362, 

phone (509) 527–7260, or Ms. Sandra 

Simmons, NEPA Coordinator, Walla 

Walla District, Corps of Engineers, 

CENWW–PD–EC, 201 North Third 

Avenue, Walla Walla, WA 99362, phone 

(509) 527–7265. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Since 

construction of its first dam on the 

lower Snake River, the Corps has 

recognized that sediment management 

would be an ongoing maintenance issue 

within the reservoirs. Historically the 

Corps has used dredging as the primary 

means of managing sediment that 

deposited in areas that interfere with 

man’s use of the river. Most of these 

maintenance dredging actions have been 

conducted on a case-by-case basis 

without a long-term look at more 

effective ways of managing sediment. 

The Corps has now determined it would 

be more effective to evaluate sediment 

management within the lower Snake 

River on a watershed scale, and evaluate 

the potential for reducing sediment 

input, rather than focusing only on the 

reservoirs themselves. Although the 

Corps does not have the authority to 

manage land outside of the reservoir 

project boundaries, the Corps can 

identify and evaluate management 

strategies that could be implemented on 

non-Corps property. 

The Corps is considering a variety of 

sediment management measures that 

could be used individually or in 

combination. Measures identified to 

date for evaluation include: 

Sediment Reduction Measures 

Structural Sediment Reduction 

Measures 

• Aquatic ecosystem restoration 

projects under current authorities 

(Section 206 Water Resources 

Development Act of 1996 and Section 

1135 of the Water Resources 

Development Act of 1986) 

• Shoreline vegetated filter strips 

• Streambank erosion control 

• Improved logging road placement 

and design 

Non-Structural Sediment Reduction 

Measures 

• Natural Resource Conservation 

Service conservation programs 

• Land use planning 

• Public education 

• Watershed planning 

• Forest management practices 

• Timber harvest planning 

Sediment Management Measures 

In-water systems to control sediment 

deposition. 

• Agitation to prevent settling 

• Bendway weirs 

• Dikes and dike fields 

• Air curtains to prevent settling of 

material at specific locations 

Sediment Removal and Management 

• Agitation to re-suspend sediment 

• Dredging to remove sediment 

• Beneficial use of dredged material 

• In-water disposal of dredged 

material 

• Upland disposal of dredged 

material 

System Management Measures 

Modify Navigation System 

Infrastructure 

• Relocate affected commercial 

navigation, recreational boating and 

water intake facilities 

• Build sediment retention dams 

upstream of Lower Granite reservoir 

and/or in tributaries 

Modify Reservoir Operations 

• Raise pool levels to increase water 

depth 

• Modify flows to flush sediment 

• Draw down Lower Granite reservoir 

to add flow conveyance capacity 

Provide Flow Conveyance at Snake/ 

Clearwater Rivers Confluence 

The Corps has also initially identified 

several key resource areas that may be 

affected by the sediment management