Federal Register / Vol. 79, No. 218 / Wednesday, November 12, 2014 / Notices 67159 

First, from the date of this Order until 

December 16, 2023, Mohammad Hakim 

Hashemi, with a last known address of 

29 The Cedars, Herons Lorde, London, 

England W138JF, and when acting for or 

on his behalf, his successors, assigns, 

employees, agents or representatives 

(the ‘‘Denied Person’’), may not, directly 

or indirectly, participate in any way in 

any transaction involving any 

commodity, software or technology 

(hereinafter collectively referred to as 

‘‘item’’) exported or to be exported from 

the United States that is subject to the 

Regulations, including, but not limited 

to: 

A. Applying for, obtaining, or using 

any license, License Exception, or 

export control document; 

B. Carrying on negotiations 

concerning, or ordering, buying, 

receiving, using, selling, delivering, 

storing, disposing of, forwarding, 

transporting, financing, or otherwise 

servicing in any way, any transaction 

involving any item exported or to be 

exported from the United States that is 

subject to the Regulations, or in any 

other activity subject to the Regulations; 

or 

C. Benefitting in any way from any 

transaction involving any item exported 

or to be exported from the United States 

that is subject to the Regulations, or in 

any other activity subject to the 

Regulations. 

Second, no person may, directly or 

indirectly, do any of the following: 

A. Export or reexport to or on behalf 

of the Denied Person any item subject to 

the Regulations; 

B. Take any action that facilitates the 

acquisition or attempted acquisition by 

the Denied Person of the ownership, 

possession, or control of any item 

subject to the Regulations that has been 

or will be exported from the United 

States, including financing or other 

support activities related to a 

transaction whereby the Denied Person 

acquires or attempts to acquire such 

ownership, possession or control; 

C. Take any action to acquire from or 

to facilitate the acquisition or attempted 

acquisition from the Denied Person of 

any item subject to the Regulations that 

has been exported from the United 

States; 

D. Obtain from the Denied Person in 

the United States any item subject to the 

Regulations with knowledge or reason 

to know that the item will be, or is 

intended to be, exported from the 

United States; or 

E. Engage in any transaction to service 

any item subject to the Regulations that 

has been or will be exported from the 

United States and which is owned, 

possessed or controlled by the Denied 

Person, or service any item, of whatever 

origin, that is owned, possessed or 

controlled by the Denied Person if such 

service involves the use of any item 

subject to the Regulations that has been 

or will be exported from the United 

States. For purposes of this paragraph, 

servicing means installation, 

maintenance, repair, modification or 

testing. 

Third, after notice and opportunity for 

comment as provided in Section 766.23 

of the Regulations, any other person, 

firm, corporation, or business 

organization related to Hashemi by 

ownership, control, position of 

responsibility, affiliation, or other 

connection in the conduct of trade or 

business may also be made subject to 

the provisions of this Order in order to 

prevent evasion of this Order. 

Fourth, in accordance with Part 756 of 

the Regulations, Hashemi may file an 

appeal of this Order with the Under 

Secretary of Commerce for Industry and 

Security. The appeal must be filed 

within 45 days from the date of this 

Order and must comply with the 

provisions of Part 756 of the 

Regulations. 

Fifth, a copy of this Order shall be 

delivered to the Hashemi. This Order 

shall be published in the Federal 

Register. 

Sixth, this Order is effective 

immediately and shall remain in effect 

until December 16, 2023. 

Issued this 5th day of November, 2014. 

Karen H. Nies-Vogel, 

Director, Office of Exporter Services. 

[FR Doc. 2014–26701 Filed 11–10–14; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE P 

DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE 

United States Patent and Trademark 

Office 

[Docket No. PTO–P–2014–0013] 

Request for Comments and Notice of 

Roundtable on USPTO Use of 

Crowdsourcing To Identify Relevant 

Prior Art 

AGENCY: United States Patent and 

Trademark Office, Commerce. 

ACTION: Notice of public meeting; 

request for comments. 

SUMMARY: The United States Patent and 

Trademark Office (USPTO) is 

announcing a December 2, 2014 

roundtable and requesting written 

comments on USPTO use of 

crowdsourcing to identify relevant prior 

art. Members of the public are invited to 

participate at the roundtable. On 

February 20, 2014, the White House 

issued a series of executive actions 

including crowdsourcing prior art as a 

means to strengthen patent quality. The 

roundtable will address the executive 

action by exploring: (1) How the USPTO 

can utilize crowdsourcing tools to 

obtain relevant prior art in order to 

enhance the quality of examination and 

issued patents; and (2) ways the USPTO 

can leverage existing private sector 

solutions for the electronic receipt and 

hosting of crowdsourced materials as a 

means to provide prior art to examiners. 

DATES: Event Date: The roundtable will 

be held on December 2, 2014, beginning 

at 1 p.m. Eastern Standard Time (EST), 

and ending at 5 p.m. EST. 

Roundtable Registration Deadline: 

Registration to attend the roundtable in 

person or via webcast is required by 

November 25, 2014. Additionally, 

requests to participate in the roundtable 

as a speaker must be submitted in 

writing no later than November 18, 

2014. See the ‘‘Event Registration 

Information’’ section of this notice for 

additional details on how to register and 

how to request to present as a speaker. 

Written Comment Submission 

Deadline: Any member of the public, 

whether attending the roundtable or not, 

may submit written comments on any of 

the issues identified in part II of the 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION section of 

this notice for consideration by the 

USPTO. Written comments must be 

received on or before December 9, 2014, 

to ensure consideration. 

ADDRESSES: Event Address: The 

roundtable will be held in the Moot 

Court Room, Benjamin N. Cardozo 

School of Law, 55 Fifth Avenue, New 

York, NY 10003. 

Addresses for Written Comments: 

Written comments should be sent by 

electronic mail addressed to 

CrowdsourcingRoundtableNY@

uspto.gov. Comments also may be 

submitted by postal mail addressed to: 

Mail Stop Comments—Patents, 

Commissioner for Patents, P.O. Box 

1450, Alexandria, VA 22313–1450, 

marked to the attention of Jack Harvey, 

Director, Technology Center 2800. 

Although comments may be submitted 

by postal mail, the Office prefers to 

receive comments by electronic mail. 

Comments will be available for public 

inspection via the USPTO’s Internet 

Web site at http://www.uspto.gov/

patents/init_events/crowdsourcing_

roundtable_20141202.jsp, and at the 

Office of the Commissioner for Patents, 

located in Madison East, Tenth Floor, 

600 Dulany Street, Alexandria, VA 

22314, upon request. Because comments 

will be available for public inspection, 


TKELLEY on DSK3SPTVN1PROD with NOTICES
67160 Federal Register / Vol. 79, No. 218 / Wednesday, November 12, 2014 / Notices 

information that is not desired to be 

made public, such as an address or 

phone number, should not be included 

in the comments. 

Event Registration Information: To 

register to attend or request to present 

as a speaker, please send an email 

message to 

CrowdsourcingRoundtableNY@

uspto.gov and provide the following 

information: (1) Your name, title, 

company or organization (if applicable), 

address, phone number, and email 

address; (2) whether you wish to attend 

in person or via webcast; and (3) 

whether you wish to make an oral 

presentation at the roundtable and, if so, 

which topics identified in part II of the 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION section of 

this notice will be addressed and the 

approximate desired length of your 

presentation. Each attendee, even if 

from the same organization, must 

register separately. 

Due to time constraints, the USPTO 

may not be able to accommodate all 

persons who wish to make a 

presentation. However, the USPTO will 

attempt to accommodate as many 

persons as possible who wish to make 

a presentation within the time 

constraints. After reviewing the speaker 

requests and the information regarding 

the presentations provided in the 

requests, the USPTO will contact each 

speaker prior to the event with the 

amount of time available and the 

approximate time that the speaker’s 

presentation is scheduled to begin. The 

amount of time available for each 

presentation may be limited to ensure 

that all persons selected to speak will 

have a meaningful opportunity to do so. 

Speakers who opt to employ slides as 

part of their presentation must send 

final electronic copies of the slides in 

Microsoft PowerPoint to 

CrowdsourcingRoundtableNY@

uspto.gov by November 25, 2014, so that 

the slides can be displayed at the 

roundtable. Additionally, the USPTO 

will provide an opportunity for persons 

in the audience not previously selected 

as speakers to speak at the roundtable 

without a formal presentation. 

For more information on the 

roundtable, including webcast access 

instructions, agenda and a list of 

speakers, please visit http://

www.uspto.gov/patents/init_events/

crowdsourcing_roundtable_

20141202.jsp. 

If special accommodations due to a 

disability are needed, please inform the 

contact person(s) identified below. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Requests for additional information 

should be directed to the attention of 

Jack Harvey, Director, Technology 

Center 2800, by telephone at 571–272– 

8004, or by email to jack.harvey@

uspto.gov. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

I. Background 

On February 20, 2014, the White 

House issued a series of executive 

actions including crowdsourcing prior 

art as a means to strengthen patent 

quality. Information on the White House 

executive actions is available at http:// 

www.uspto.gov/patents/init_events/

executive_actions.jsp. In response to the 

executive actions and feedback received 

in the context of the Software 

Partnership, the USPTO hosted a 

roundtable on April 10, 2014, focused 

on the use of crowdsourcing and thirdparty preissuance submissions to 

identify relevant prior art. See Request 

for Comments and Notice of Roundtable 

Event on the Use of Crowdsourcing and 

Third-Party Preissuance Submissions To 

Identify Relevant Prior Art, 79 FR 15319 

(March 19, 2014). 

The roundtable featured both USPTO 

and public presentations, along with a 

question and answer session to solicit 

public input on the current third-party 

submission process and ways the 

USPTO can use crowdsourcing to 

enhance the quality of examination and 

issued patents. The USPTO also 

received written comments on the 

topics that were identified in the March 

19, 2014 notice and discussed at the 

April 10, 2014 roundtable. Details about 

the roundtable, as well as the webcast 

recording and written comments 

received are available at http://

www.uspto.gov/patents/init_events/

crowdsourcing_roundtable_04-2014.jsp. 

II. USPTO Use of Crowdsourcing Tools 

To Identify Relevant Prior Art 

Based on the feedback the USPTO 

received responsive to the March 19, 

2014 notice and April 10, 2014 

roundtable, the USPTO has decided to 

further explore the use of 

crowdsourcing tools to enhance the 

quality of patent examination and 

issued patents. To that end, the USPTO 

is seeking public input on the extent to 

which it can utilize crowdsourcing tools 

to obtain relevant prior art. 

Crowdsourcing involves leveraging the 

knowledge of a large group of people, 

such as from an online community, to 

obtain needed information. 

The USPTO recognizes that any use of 

crowdsourcing tools must comply with 

applicable patent laws, regulations and 

procedures. For example, any USPTO 

crowdsourcing activities would need to 

preserve the ex parte nature of patent 

examination and be in accordance with 

the provisions of 35 U.S.C. 122(c). That 

statutory provision provides that ‘‘[t]he 

Director shall establish appropriate 

procedures to ensure that no protest or 

other form of pre-issuance opposition to 

the grant of a patent on an application 

may be initiated after publication of the 

application without the express written 

consent of the applicant.’’ 

The USPTO seeks input from the 

public at the roundtable and/or via 

written comments on the following 

issues: 

1. In what ways can the USPTO 

utilize crowdsourcing to identify 

relevant prior art that would be 

available for use in the examination of 

published applications while 

maintaining the ex parte nature of 

patent examination? Some examples of 

how the public traditionally uses 

crowdsourcing include: passively 

monitoring discussions (thread) 

between parties on crowdsourcing Web 

sites, and posting a question on a 

crowdsourcing Web site and viewing 

responses to the posted question. 

2. If the USPTO were to post a 

question relating to the technology of a 

published application on a 

crowdsourcing Web site, what follow-up 

communications, if any, could someone 

from the USPTO have with parties on 

the Web site? Some examples of how 

the public traditionally engages in 

follow-up communications on 

crowdsourcing Web sites include: A 

conversation on the thread with a 

particular party who responded to the 

posted question to clarify information 

the party provided, and a conversation 

on the thread with a particular party 

who responded to the initial posting to 

request additional information. 

3. What appropriate precautions, if 

any, could the USPTO employ to ensure 

that the use of crowdsourcing tools does 

not encourage a protest or other form of 

preissuance opposition to the grant of a 

patent? (See 35 U.S.C. 122(c).) 

4. If the USPTO cites in an 

application prior art obtained via 

crowdsourcing tools, to what extent, if 

any, should the USPTO document the 

crowdsourcing activities used to 

identify the prior art? 

5. For each published patent 

application, if the USPTO gave the 

patent applicant the option to opt-in or 

opt-out of the USPTO’s use of 

crowdsourcing, would applicants 

choose to participate in the 

crowdsourcing program? What 

considerations would inform the 

applicant’s decision? 


TKELLEY on DSK3SPTVN1PROD with NOTICES
Federal Register / Vol. 79, No. 218 / Wednesday, November 12, 2014 / Notices 67161 

III. Request for Information on 

Electronic Receipt and Hosting of 

Crowdsourced Prior Art 

The USPTO wants to ensure that the 

best prior art is available to the 

examiner during examination. Because 

this information often resides with the 

technical and scientific community, 

crowdsourcing may be a promising way 

to uncover hard-to-find prior art, 

especially non-patent literature. A 

growing number of organizations from a 

wide range of industries have expressed 

a willingness to help the USPTO with 

its crowdsourcing efforts by pledging to 

provide public product documentation, 

educational materials, and other forms 

of non-patent literature. 

Accordingly, the USPTO issued a 

Request for Information (RFI) titled 

‘‘Crowdsourced Non-Patent Literature 

Hosting’’ (Solicitation Number: 

PTOHMB201501), on October 9, 2014, 

seeking information from qualified firms 

capable of electronically receiving and 

potentially hosting the materials that 

have been pledged to the USPTO 

through the above-described 

crowdsourcing effort. Detailed 

information on the RFI is available at 

http://www.uspto.gov/about/vendor_

info/current_acquisitions/index.jsp. 

At the roundtable, the USPTO seeks 

to build on information received in 

response to the RFI to further explore 

ways the USPTO can leverage existing 

private sector solutions for the 

electronic receipt and hosting of 

crowdsourced materials as a means to 

provide prior art to examiners. Any 

formal responses to the RFI must be 

submitted in writing in accordance with 

the instructions set forth therein and not 

as written comments in response to this 

notice. After the close of the RFI 

comment period, information about the 

roundtable discussion on the RFI will be 

made available at http://www.uspto.gov/ 

patents/init_events/crowdsourcing_

roundtable_20141202.jsp. 

Dated: November 6, 2014. 

Michelle K. Lee, 

Deputy Under Secretary of Commerce for 

Intellectual Property and Deputy Director of 

the United States Patent and Trademark 

Office. 

[FR Doc. 2014–26835 Filed 11–10–14; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 3510–16–P 

DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE 

Office of the Secretary 

Defense Science Board; Notice of 

Federal Advisory Committee Meetings 

AGENCY: Department of Defense. 

ACTION: Notice of Federal Advisory 

Committee meetings. 

SUMMARY: The Defense Science Board 

will meet in closed session on December 

10 and 11, 2014, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. 

at the Pentagon, Room 3E863, 

Washington, DC. 

DATES: December 10 and 11, 2014, from 

8 a.m. to 5 p.m. 

ADDRESSES: The Pentagon, Room 3E863, 

Washington, DC. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Ms. 

Debra Rose, Executive Officer, Defense 

Science Board, 3140 Defense Pentagon, 

Room 3B888A, Washington, DC 20301– 

3140, via email at debra.a.rose20.civ@

mail.mil, or via phone at (703) 571– 

0084. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: This 

meeting is being held under the 

provisions of the Federal Advisory 

Committee Act of 1972 (5 U.S.C., 

Appendix, as amended), the 

Government in the Sunshine Act of 

1976 (5 U.S.C. 552b, as amended), and 

41 CFR 102–3.150. 

The mission of the Defense Science 

Board is to advise the Secretary of 

Defense and the Under Secretary of 

Defense for Acquisition, Technology & 

Logistics on scientific and technical 

matters as they affect the perceived 

needs of the Department of Defense. At 

this meeting, the Board will discuss 

interim findings and recommendations 

resulting from ongoing Task Force 

activities. The Board will also discuss 

plans for future consideration of 

scientific and technical aspects of 

specific strategies, tactics, and policies 

as they may affect the U.S. national 

defense posture and homeland security. 

In accordance with section 10(d) of 

the Federal Advisory Committee Act, 

Public Law 92–463, as amended (5 

U.S.C. App. 2) and 41 CFR 102–3.155, 

the Department of Defense has 

determined that the Defense Science 

Board meeting for December 10 and 11, 

2014, will be closed to the public. 

Specifically, the Under Secretary of 

Defense (Acquisition, Technology, and 

Logistics), in consultation with the DoD 

Office of General Counsel, has 

determined in writing that all sessions 

of meeting for December 10 and 11, 

2014, will be closed to the public 

because it will consider matters covered 

by 5 U.S.C. 552b(c)(1) and (4). 

In accordance with 41 CFR 102–3.140 

and section 10(a)(3) of the Federal 

Advisory Committee Act, interested 

persons may submit a written statement 

for consideration by the Defense Science 

Board. Individuals submitting a written 

statement must submit their statement 

to the Designated Federal Official at the 

address detailed in FOR FURTHER

INFORMATION CONTACT; at any point, 

however, if a written statement is not 

received at least 10 calendar days prior 

to the meeting, which is the subject of 

this notice, then it may not be provided 

to or considered by the Defense Science 

Board. The Designated Federal Official 

will review all timely submissions with 

the Defense Science Board Chairperson, 

and ensure they are provided to 

members of the Defense Science Board 

before the meeting that is the subject of 

this notice. 

Dated: November 5, 2014. 

Aaron Siegel, 

Alternate OSD Federal Register Liaison 

Officer, Department of Defense. 

[FR Doc. 2014–26678 Filed 11–10–14; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 5001–06–P 

DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION 

[Docket No.: ED–2014–ICCD–0122] 

Agency Information Collection 

Activities; Submission to the Office of 

Management and Budget for Review 

and Approval; Comment Request; 

Consolidated State Application 

AGENCY: Office of Elementary and 

Secondary Education (OESE), 

Department of Education (ED). 

ACTION: Notice. 

SUMMARY: In accordance with the 

Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (44 

U.S.C. chapter 3501 et seq.), ED is 

proposing an extension of an existing 

information collection. 

DATES: Interested persons are invited to 

submit comments on or before 

December 12, 2014. 

ADDRESSES: Comments submitted in 

response to this notice should be 

submitted electronically through the 

Federal eRulemaking Portal at http://

www.regulations.gov by selecting 

Docket ID number ED–2014–ICCD–0122 

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 note that comments submitted by 

fax or email and those submitted after 

the comment period will not be 

accepted; ED will ONLY accept 

comments during the comment period 

in this mailbox when the regulations.gov 

site is not available. Written requests for 

information or comments submitted by 

postal mail or delivery should be 

addressed to the Director of the 

Information Collection Clearance 

Division, U.S. Department of Education, 

400 Maryland Avenue SW., LBJ, 


TKELLEY on DSK3SPTVN1PROD with NOTICES