29312 Federal Register / Vol. 75, No. 100 / Tuesday, May 25, 2010 / Notices 

Committee help GIPSA better meet the 

needs of its customers who operate in a 

dynamic and changing marketplace. 

DATES: GIPSA will consider 

nominations received by June 24, 2010. 

ADDRESSES: Submit nominations for the 

Advisory Committee by completing 

form AD–755. Nominations may be 

submitted by: 

• E-Mail: Terri.L.Henry@usda.gov. 

• Mail: Terri Henry, GIPSA, USDA, 

1400 Independence Ave., SW., Room 

1633–S, Stop 3642, Washington, DC 

20250–3642. 

• Fax: (202) 690–2173. 

• Hand Delivery or Courier: Terri 

Henry, GIPSA, USDA, 1400 

Independence Ave., SW., Room 1633–S, 

Stop 3642, Washington, DC 20250– 

3642. 

• Internet: Go to http:// 

www.regulations.gov and follow the 

online instructions for submitting 

comments. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Terri L. Henry, telephone (202) 205– 

8281 or e-mail Terri.L.Henry@usda.gov. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: As 

required by section 21 of the USGSA (7 

U.S.C. 87j), as amended, the Secretary of 

Agriculture established the Grain 

Inspection Advisory Committee to 

provide advice to the GIPSA 

Administrator on implementation of the 

USGSA. The current authority for the 

Advisory Committee expires on 

September 30, 2015. As specified in the 

USGSA, each member’s term is 3 years 

and no member may serve successive 

terms. 

The Advisory Committee consists of 

15 members, appointed by the 

Secretary, who represent the interests of 

grain producers, processors, handlers, 

merchandisers, consumers, exporters, 

and scientists with expertise in research 

related to the policies in section 2 of the 

USGSA (7 U.S.C. 74). Members of the 

Advisory Committee serve without 

compensation. USDA may reimburse 

members for travel expenses, including 

per diem in lieu of subsistence, for 

travel away from their homes or regular 

places of business in performance of 

Advisory Committee service (see 5 

U.S.C. 5703). 

A list of current Advisory Committee 

members and other relevant information 

are available on the GIPSA Web site at 

http://www.gipsa.usda.gov. Under the 

section ‘‘I Want To * * * ’’ select ‘‘Learn 

about the Advisory Committee.’’ 

On November 10, 2009, GIPSA 

published a notice in the Federal 

Register (74 FR 57991) soliciting 

nominations to serve on the Advisory 

Committee to replace five members and 

eight alternate members whose terms 

expired in March 2010. GIPSA is 

reopening for 30 days the time period 

for submitting additional nominations 

for individuals to serve on the Advisory 

Committee. 

Persons interested in serving on the 

Advisory Committee or nominating 

another individual to serve, may 

contact: Terri L. Henry by telephone at 

202–205–8281, by fax at 202–690–2173, 

or by electronic mail at 

Terri.L.Henry@usda.gov to request Form 

AD–755. Form AD–755 may also be 

obtained via GIPSA’s Web site at 

http://www.gipsa.usda.gov. Under the 

section ‘‘I Want To...’’ select ‘‘Learn 

about the Advisory Committee,’’ then 

select Form AD–755. To ensure that 

recommendations of the Advisory 

Committee take into account the needs 

of the diverse groups served by the 

USDA, nominations shall include, to the 

extent practicable, individuals with 

demonstrated ability and experience to 

represent the interests of racial and 

ethnic minorities, women, and persons 

with disabilities. 

The final selection of Advisory 

Committee members and alternates is 

made by the Secretary of Agriculture 

without regard to race, color, religion, 

sex, national origin, age, mental or 

physical disability, marital status, 

familial status, political beliefs, sexual 

orientation, or because all or part of 

their income is derived from public 

assistance. 

Marianne Plaus, 

Acting Administrator, Grain Inspection, 

Packers and Stockyards Administration. 

[FR Doc. 2010–12380 Filed 5–24–10; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 3410–KD–P 

DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE 

Patent and Trademark Office 

[Docket No.: PTO–2010–0031] 

Notice Regarding the Elimination of 

the Fee for Petitions To Make Special 

Filed Under the Patent Prosecution 

Highway (PPH) Programs 

AGENCY: United States Patent and 

Trademark Office, Commerce. 

ACTION: Notice. 

SUMMARY: The United States Patent and 

Trademark Office (USPTO) is 

eliminating the fee for the petition to 

make special under the Patent 

Prosecution Highway (PPH) programs. 

Currently, applicants must pay a 

petition fee under 37 CFR 1.17(h) to 

have an application to enter into the 

PPH program. With the elimination of 

the fee, applicants will no longer have 

to pay the petition to make special fee 

in order to request an application enter 

all current pilot and fully implemented 

PPH programs. The elimination of the 

petition fee will simplify the PPH 

requirements and is expected to 

encourage greater PPH participation. 

Since 2006, the USPTO has 

implemented the Patent Prosecution 

Highway (PPH) programs with a number 

of patent offices as part of efforts to 

pursue work sharing to avoid 

duplication of work among patent 

offices, and for reducing its own 

pendency and backlog. Notices 

regarding the PPH programs are 

available on the USPTO Web site at: 

http://www.uspto.gov/patents/ 

init_events/pph/index.jsp. Until now, 

the PPH notices have indicated that a 

request for participation in the PPH 

program must be accompanied by a 

petition to make special under 37 CFR 

1.102(d) along with the required 

petition fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(h). 

The PPH applications have proven, on 

average, to take significantly less time to 

prosecute than non-PPH applications. 

Using the PPH process also increases 

the sharing and re-use of information 

(primarily search and examination 

results) between the USPTO and its 

partner patent offices. Improving the 

PPH framework to make it more userfriendly, and thereby encourage greater 

participation by applicants, would 

support the Office’s goal to optimize 

both the quality and timeliness of 

patents. Therefore, the USPTO has 

determined that all PPH applications 

will now be advanced out of turn for 

examination under 37 CFR 1.102(a) in 

order to expedite the business of the 

Office. Applications that are advanced 

out of turn under 37 CFR 1.102(a) do not 

require the petition fee set forth in 37 

CFR 1.17(h). Previously, applications 

were advanced out of turn under 37 CFR 

1.102(d). 

DATES: Effective Date: May 25, 2010. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Magdalen Greenlief, Office of the 

Associate Commissioner for Patent 

Examination Policy, by telephone at 

571–272–8140, by facsimile 

transmission to 571–273–8140, or by 

mail addressed to: Mail Stop 

Comments–Patents, Commissioner for 

Patents, P.O. Box 1450, Alexandria, VA 

22313–1450. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: PPH is a 

first concrete implementation of a worksharing framework which was jointly 

developed by the USPTO and the Japan 

Patent Office (JPO) in 2006 as a pilot 

project. The objective of the PPH is to 

promote work sharing while at the same 

time allowing applicants to obtain 


srobinson on DSKHWCL6B1PROD with NOTICES
Federal Register / Vol. 75, No. 100 / Tuesday, May 25, 2010 / Notices 29313 

patentability determinations faster in 

multiple jurisdictions. The USPTO 

currently has PPH arrangements with 

ten patent offices–those in Japan, the 

United Kingdom, the Republic of Korea, 

Canada, Australia, the European Patent 

Office (EPO), Denmark, Germany, 

Singapore and Finland. Notices 

regarding the PPH programs with these 

patent offices are available on the 

USPTO Web site at: http:// 

www.uspto.gov/patents/init_events/ 

pph/index.jsp. 

Under the PPH program, if an 

application filed in an Office of First 

Filing (OFF) receives an indication that 

at least one claim is patentable, a 

corresponding application with 

corresponding claims filed in the 

USPTO as the Office of Second Filing 

(OSF) may be advanced out of turn for 

examination. To have the request for 

participation in the PPH accepted in the 

USPTO, an applicant must make 

available to the USPTO the relevant 

work of the OFF as well as any 

necessary translation. In addition, the 

request for participation in the PPH, 

until now, had to be accompanied by a 

petition to make special under 37 CFR 

1.102(d) along with the required 

petition fee under 37 CFR 1.17(h). 

The PPH has proven to be a useful 

work-sharing vehicle, as shown by the 

following statistics (as of February 

2010): 

• Over 2,500 PPH requests received 

by the USPTO since 2006; 

• First action allowance rate for PPH 

applications is about 25%, about double 

the first action allowance rate for all 

applications; 

• Overall allowance rate for PPH 

applications is about 93%, about double 

the allowance rate for all applications; 

and 

• The average number of actions per 

disposal for PPH applications is about 

1.7, which is significantly less than the 

number of actions per disposal for nonPPH applications. 

While the PPH has been useful, it can 

be improved. The USPTO has taken a 

number of steps, in concert with the 

Japan Patent Office (JPO) and other PPH 

partners, to enhance the PPH framework 

to make it more user friendly and 

thereby encourage greater participation. 

In January 2010, the USPTO, JPO and 

EPO began a test implementation of an 

expanded PPH framework, to allow 

participation of the Patent Cooperation 

Treaty (PCT) national/regional phase 

applications when the International 

Authority has determined that one or 

more claims have novelty, inventive 

step and industrial applicability in the 

international phase. Previously, all PPH 

programs were confined to Paris 

Convention route applications. The 

expectation is that by expanding the 

PPH to include PCT work products, 

participation will increase. 

The USPTO is taking additional steps 

to enhance the PPH framework to make 

the programs more user friendly and 

thereby encourage more participation. 

All petitions to make special filed with 

a PPH request on or after May 25, 2010 

will be treated as a request that the 

Director order their application be 

advanced out of turn to expedite the 

business of the Office under 37 CFR 

1.102(a), and the petition fee set forth in 

37 CFR 1.17(h) will not be required. If 

the request for participation in the PPH 

and the request to the Director are 

granted, the application will be 

advanced out of turn for examination by 

order of the Director under 37 CFR 

1.102(a). 

Petitions to make special filed with a 

PPH request prior to May 25, 2010 will 

be treated under 37 CFR 1.102(d) and 

the petition fee set forth in 37 CFR 

1.17(h) will be required. 

Dated: May 18, 2010. 

David J. Kappos, 

Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual 

Property and Director of the United States 

Patent and Trademark Office. 

[FR Doc. 2010–12471 Filed 5–24–10; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 3510–16–P 

DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE 

International Trade Administration 

[A–570–890] 

Wooden Bedroom Furniture from the 

People’s Republic of China: Extension 

of Time Limit for the Final Results of 

the Antidumping Duty Administrative 

Review 

AGENCY: Import Administration, 

International Trade Administration, 

Department of Commerce. 

EFFECTIVE DATE: May 25, 2010. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Jeff 

Pedersen or David Edmiston, AD/CVD 

Operations, Office 4, Import 

Administration, International Trade 

Administration, U.S. Department of 

Commerce, 14th Street and Constitution 

Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20230; 

telephone: (202) 482–2769, and (202) 

482–0989 respectively. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

Background 

On February 5, 2010, the Department 

of Commerce (the Department) 

published the preliminary results of the 

administrative review of the 

antidumping duty order on wooden 

bedroom furniture (WBF) from the 

People’s Republic of China (PRC), 

covering the period January 1, 2009 

through December 31, 2009. See 

Wooden Bedroom Furniture From the 

People’s Republic of China: Preliminary 

Results of Antidumping Duty 

Administrative Review and Intent To 

Rescind Review in Part, 75 FR 5952 

(February 5, 2010). The final results of 

this administrative review were 

originally due no later than June 5, 

2010. As explained in the memorandum 

from the Deputy Assistant Secretary for 

Import Administration, the Department 

has exercised its discretion to toll 

deadlines for the duration of the closure 

of the Federal Government from 

February 5, through February 12, 2010. 

Thus, all deadlines in this segment of 

the proceeding have been extended by 

seven days. The revised deadline for the 

final results of this review is currently 

June 12, 2010. See Memorandum to the 

Record from Ronald Lorentzen, DAS for 

Import Administration, regarding 

‘‘Tolling of Administrative Deadlines As 

a Result of the Government Closure 

During the Recent Snowstorm,’’ dated 

February 12, 2010. 

Extension of Time Limit of Final 

Results 

Section 751(a)(3)(A) of the Tariff Act 

of 1930, as amended (the Act), requires 

that the Department issue the final 

results of an administrative review 

within 120 days after the date on which 

the preliminary results are published. If 

it is not practicable to complete the 

review within that time period, section 

751(a)(3)(A) of the Act allows the 

Department to extend the deadline for 

the final results to a maximum of 180 

days after the date on which the 

preliminary results are published. 

The Department finds that it is not 

practicable to complete the final results 

of this review by June 12, 2010, because 

the Department needs additional time to 

consider over 30 complex issues the 

parties have raised. Therefore, in 

accordance with section 751(a)(3)(A) of 

the Act, the Department is extending the 

time limit for completion of the final 

results by 60 days to August 11, 2010. 

This notice is published in 

accordance with sections 751(a)(3)(A) 

and 777(i) of the Act. 

Dated: May 19, 2010. 

John M. Andersen, 

Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary for 

Antidumping and Countervailing Duty 

Operations. 

[FR Doc. 2010–12566 Filed 5–24–10; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 3510–DS–S 


srobinson on DSKHWCL6B1PROD with NOTICES