6350 Federal Register / Vol. 75, No. 26 / Tuesday, February 9, 2010 / Notices 

DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE 

Patent and Trademark Office 

Post Allowance and Refiling 

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 April 12, 2010. 

ADDRESSES: You may submit comments 

by any of the following methods: 

• E-mail: Susan.Fawcett@uspto.gov. 

Include ‘‘0651–0033 comment’’ in the 

subject line of the message. 

• Fax: 571–273–0112, marked to the 

attention of Susan K. Fawcett. 

• Mail: Susan K. Fawcett, Records 

Officer, Office of the Chief Information 

Officer, United States Patent and 

Trademark Office, P.O. Box 1450, 

Alexandria, VA 22313–1450. 

• Federal Rulemaking Portal: http:// 

www.regulations.gov. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Requests for additional information 

should be directed to Raul Tamayo, 

Legal Advisor, Office of Patent Legal 

Administration, United States Patent 

and Trademark Office, P.O. Box 1450, 

Alexandria, VA 22313–1450; by 

telephone at 571–272–7728; or by e-mail 

to Raul.Tamayo@uspto.gov. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

I. Abstract 

The United States Patent and 

Trademark Office (USPTO) is required 

by 35 U.S.C. 131 and 151 to examine 

applications and, when appropriate, 

allow applications and issue them as 

patents. When an application for a 

patent is allowed by the USPTO, the 

USPTO issues a notice of allowance and 

the applicant must pay the specified 

issue fee (including the publication fee, 

if applicable) within three months to 

avoid abandonment of the application. 

If the appropriate fees are paid within 

the proper time period, the USPTO can 

then issue the patent. If the fees are not 

paid within the designated time period, 

the application is abandoned and the 

applicant may petition the Director to 

accept a delayed payment with a 

satisfactory showing that the delay was 

unavoidable or unintentional. The 

Petition for Revival of an Application 

for Patent Abandoned Unavoidably 

(Form PTO/SB/61) and the Petition for 

Revival of an Application for Patent 

Abandoned Unintentionally (Form 

PTO/SB/64) are approved under 

information collection 0651–0031. The 

rules outlining the procedures for 

payment of the issue fee and issuance of 

a patent are found at 37 CFR 1.18 and 

1.311–1.317. 

Chapter 25 of Title 35 U.S.C. provides 

that there are several actions that the 

applicant may take after issuance of a 

patent, including requesting the 

correction of errors in a patent. For 

original patents that are deemed wholly 

or partly inoperative, applicants may 

file a reissue application, which entails 

several formal requirements including 

an oath or declaration stating that the 

errors in the patent were not the result 

of any deceptive intention on the part of 

the applicant. The rules outlining these 

procedures are found at 37 CFR 1.171– 

1.178 and 1.322–1.325. 

The public uses this information 

collection to pay fees for issued patents, 

to request corrections of errors in issued 

patents, and to submit applications for 

reissue patents. This collection 

previously included information 

requirements related to patent 

reexaminations. These items are being 

removed from this collection and have 

been submitted as a separate new 

collection, 0651–00XX Patent 

Reexaminations, which is currently 

under review by OMB. 

II. Method of Collection 

By mail, facsimile, hand delivery, or 

electronically to the USPTO. Electronic 

submissions are made through EFSWeb, the USPTO’s online filing system 

for patent applications and related 

documents. 

III. Data 

OMB Number: 0651–0033. 

Form Number(s): PTO/SB/44/50/51/ 

51S/52/53/56 and PTOL–85B. 

Type of Review: Revision of a 

currently approved collection. 

Affected Public: Individuals or 

households; businesses or other forprofits; and not-for-profit institutions. 

Estimated Number of Respondents: 

217,184 responses per year. 

Estimated Time per Response: The 

USPTO estimates that it will take the 

public from 1.8 minutes (0.03 hours) to 

2 hours to gather the necessary 

information, prepare the appropriate 

form or other document, and submit the 

information to the USPTO. 

Estimated Total Annual Respondent 

Burden Hours: 65,832 hours per year. 

Estimated Total Annual Respondent 

Cost Burden: $13,053,750 per year. The 

USPTO expects that the information in 

this collection will be prepared by 

attorneys, except for the Issue Fee 

Transmittal, which will be prepared by 

paraprofessionals. Using the 

professional rate of $325 per hour for 

attorneys in private firms, the USPTO 

estimates that the respondent cost 

burden for attorneys submitting the 

information in this collection will be 

$9,346,350 per year. Using the 

paraprofessional rate of $100 per hour, 

the USPTO expects that the respondent 

cost burden for submitting the Issue Fee 

Transmittal will be $3,707,400 per year. 

Item Estimated time for 

response 

Estimated 

annual 

responses 

Estimated 

annual 

burden hours 

Certificate of Correction (PTO/SB/44) ....................................................... 1 hour .............................................. 26,000 26,000 

Reissue Documentation ............................................................................. 2 hours ............................................ 850 1,700 

Reissue Patent Application Transmittal (PTO/SB/50) ............................... 12 minutes ....................................... 850 170 

Reissue Application Declaration by the Inventor or the Assignee (PTO/ 

SB/51/52).

30 minutes ....................................... 1,135 568 

Supplemental Declaration for Reissue Patent Application to Correct 

‘‘Errors’’ Statement (37 CFR 1.175) (PTO/SB/51S).

1.8 minutes ...................................... 900 27 

Reissue Application: Consent of Assignee; Statement of Non-assignment (PTO/SB/53).6 minutes ......................................... 1,230 123 

Reissue Application Fee Transmittal Form (PTO/SB/56) ......................... 12 minutes ....................................... 850 170 

Issue Fee Transmittal (PTOL–85B) ........................................................... 12 minutes ....................................... 12,975 2,595 

Issue Fee Transmittal (EFS-Web) (PTOL–85B) ....................................... 12 minutes ....................................... 172,394 34,479 


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Federal Register / Vol. 75, No. 26 / Tuesday, February 9, 2010 / Notices 6351 

Item Estimated time for 

response 

Estimated 

annual 

responses 

Estimated 

annual 

burden hours 

Totals .................................................................................................. .......................................................... 217,184 65,832 

Estimated Total Annual Non-hour 

Respondent Cost Burden: $284,329,886 

per year. There are no capital start-up or 

maintenance costs associated with this 

information collection. However, this 

collection does have annual (non-hour) 

costs in the form of fees, postage costs, 

and recordkeeping costs. 

The total estimated fees for this 

collection are calculated in the 

accompanying table. The Reissue 

Application Fee Transmittal Form 

(PTO/SB/56) includes the fees for the 

reissue application under 37 CFR 1.16, 

including the basic filing fee, search fee, 

and examination fee. These fees cover 

all parts of the application, including 

reissue documentation, reissue 

application transmittal, reissue 

application declarations, and consent of 

assignee or statement of nonassignment. There is no fee for the 

supplemental declaration for a reissue 

patent application to correct an ‘‘errors’’ 

statement. Additionally, there are 

several different issue fees under 37 

CFR 1.18 depending on the type of 

patent being issued, whether a 

publication fee is required, and whether 

the inventor is entitled to the 

discounted small entity fee. The USPTO 

estimates that the total fees associated 

with this collection will be 

$284,296,310 per year. 

Item 

Estimated 

annual 

responses 

Fee amount 

Estimated 

annual 

fees 

Certificate of Correction (PTO/SB/44) ................................................................................. 26,000 $100.00 $2,600,000.00 

Reissue Documentation ....................................................................................................... 850 0.00 0.00 

Reissue Patent Application Transmittal (PTO/SB/50) ......................................................... 850 0.00 0.00 

Reissue Application Declaration by the Inventor or the Assignee (PTO/SB/51/52) ........... 1,135 0.00 0.00 

Supplemental Declaration for Reissue Patent Application to Correct ‘‘Errors’’ Statement 

(37 CFR 1.175) (PTO/SB/51S) ........................................................................................ 900 0.00 0.00 

Reissue Application: Consent of Assignee; Statement of Non-assignment (PTO/SB/53) 1,230 0.00 0.00 

Reissue Application Fee Transmittal Form (PTO/SB/56) ................................................... 510 1,520.00 775,200.00 

Reissue Application Fee Transmittal Form (small entity) (PTO/SB/56) .............................. 340 760.00 258,400.00 

Issue Fee (utility patent, no publication fee) (PTOL–85B) .................................................. 11,162 1,510.00 16,854,620.00 

Issue Fee (utility patent, no publication fee, small entity) (PTOL–85B) ............................. 2,712 755.00 2,047,560.00 

Issue Fee (utility patent, with publication fee) (PTOL–85B) ............................................... 118,518 1,810.00 214,517,580.00 

Issue Fee (utility patent, with publication fee, small entity) (PTOL–85B) ........................... 28,802 1,055.00 30,386,110.00 

Issue Fee (design patent, no publication fee) (PTOL–85B) ............................................... 13,218 860.00 11,367,480.00 

Issue Fee (design patent, no publication fee, small entity) (PTOL–85B) ........................... 9,976 430.00 4,289,680.00 

Issue Fee (plant patent, no publication fee) (PTOL–85B) .................................................. 50 1,190.00 59,500.00 

Issue Fee (plant patent, no publication fee, small entity) (PTOL–85B) .............................. 34 595.00 20,230.00 

Issue Fee (plant patent, with publication fee) (PTOL–85B) ................................................ 533 1,490.00 794,170.00 

Issue Fee (plant patent, with publication fee, small entity) (PTOL–85B) ........................... 364 895.00 325,780.00 

Totals ............................................................................................................................ 217,184 ........................ 284,296,310.00 

Customers may incur postage costs 

when submitting the information in this 

collection to the USPTO by mail. The 

USPTO estimates that the average firstclass postage cost for a mailed 

submission will be 88 cents and that 

approximately 15,200 submissions will 

be mailed to the USPTO per year. The 

total estimated postage cost for this 

collection is $13,376 per year. 

When submitting the information in 

this collection to the USPTO 

electronically, the customer is strongly 

urged to retain a copy of the 

acknowledgment receipt as evidence 

that the submission was received by the 

USPTO on the date noted. The USPTO 

estimates that it will take 5 seconds 

(0.001 hours) to print and retain a copy 

of the acknowledgment receipt and that 

approximately 201,984 responses per 

year will be submitted electronically, for 

a total of approximately 202 hours per 

year for printing this receipt. Using the 

paraprofessional rate of $100 per hour, 

the USPTO estimates that the 

recordkeeping cost associated with this 

collection will be $20,200 per year. 

The total non-hour respondent cost 

burden for this collection in the form of 

fees, postage costs, and recordkeeping 

costs is $284,329,886 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 

approval of this information collection; 

they also will become a matter of public 

record. 

Dated: February 2, 2010. 

Susan K. Fawcett, 

Records Officer, USPTO, Office of the Chief 

Information Officer. 

[FR Doc. 2010–2760 Filed 2–8–10; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 3510–16–P 


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