4946 Federal Register / Vol. 74, No. 17 / Wednesday, January 28, 2009 / Notices 

permit. A permit is requested for a fiveyear period. 

In compliance with the National 

Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (42 

U.S.C. 4321 et seq.), an initial 

determination has been made that the 

activity proposed is categorically 

excluded from the requirement to 

prepare an environmental assessment or 

environmental impact statement. 

Concurrent with the publication of 

this notice in the Federal Register, 

NMFS is forwarding copies of this 

application to the Marine Mammal 

Commission and its Committee of 

Scientific Advisors. 

Dated: January 16, 2009. 

P. Michael Payne, 

Chief, Permits, Conservation and Education 

Division, Office of Protected Resources, 

National Marine Fisheries Service. 

[FR Doc. E9–1729 Filed 1–27–09; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 3510–22–S 

DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE 

National Oceanic and Atmospheric 

Administration 

RIN 0648–XM92 

New England Fishery Management 

Council; Public Meeting 

AGENCY: National Marine Fisheries 

Service (NMFS), National Oceanic and 

Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), 

Commerce. 

ACTION: Notice; public meeting. 

SUMMARY: The New England Fishery 

Management Council’s (Council) 

Interspecies Committee will meet to 

consider actions affecting New England 

fisheries in the exclusive economic zone 

(EEZ). 

DATES: The meeting will be held on 

Wednesday, February 18, 2009 at 9:30 

a.m. 

ADDRESSES: 

Meeting address: The meeting will be 

held at the Holiday Inn, 31 Hampshire 

Street, Mansfield, MA 02048; 

Telephone: (508)339–2200; Fax:(508) 

339–1040. 

Council address: New England 

Fishery Management Council, 50 Water 

Street, Mill 2, Newburyport, MA 01950. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Paul 

J. Howard, Executive Director, New 

England Fishery Management Council; 

telephone: (978)465–0492. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The items 

of discussion in the committee’s agenda 

are as follows: 

(1) The Committee will discuss 

management plan integration - How to 

possibly combine species managed 

under current fishery management plans 

(FMPs) into broader units under fewer 

FMPs. 

(2) They will also discuss a process 

for changing specifications for multiple 

species caught in fisheries managed 

under annual catch limits (ACLs) in 

different FMPs. 

(3) There will also be a discussion of 

options to address the yellowtail 

flounder incidental catch by scallop 

vessels as it affects the scallop access 

areas in New England. 

(4) The Committee will also finalize 

Council comments on priorities for 2009 

observer coverage under the 

Standardized Bycatch Reporting 

Methodology. 

(5) Other business. 

Although non-emergency issues not 

contained in this agenda may come 

before this group for discussion, those 

issues may not be the subject of formal 

action during this meeting. Action will 

be restricted to those issues specifically 

identified in this notice and any issues 

arising after publication of this notice 

that require emergency action under 

section 305(c) of the Magnuson-Stevens 

Fishery Conservation and Management 

Act, provided the public has been 

notified of the Council’s intent to take 

final action to address the emergency. 

Special Accommodations 

This meeting is physically accessible 

to people withdisabilities. Requests for 

sign language interpretation or other 

auxiliary aids should be directed to Paul 

J. Howard (see ADDRESSES) at least 5 

days prior to the meeting date. 

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

Dated: January 23, 2009. 

Tracey L. Thompson, 

Acting Director, Office of Sustainable 

Fisheries, National Marine Fisheries Service. 

[FR Doc. E9–1780 Filed 1–27–09; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 3510–22–S 

DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE 

United States Patent and Trademark 

Office 

[Docket No.: PTO–P–2008–0063] 

Request for Comments and Notice of 

Roundtable on Deferred Examination 

for Patent Applications 

AGENCY: United States Patent and 

Trademark Office, Commerce. 

ACTION: Notice; Request for comments. 

SUMMARY: The United States Patent and 

Trademark Office (USPTO) frequently 

receives suggestions that the USPTO 

adopt a deferral of examination 

procedure. The USPTO is conducting a 

roundtable to obtain public input from 

diverse sources to determine whether 

the support expressed for deferral of 

examination is isolated or whether there 

is general support in the patent 

community and/or the public sector 

generally for the adoption of some type 

of deferral of examination. The 

roundtable is open to the public. 

Members of the public who wish to 

participate in the roundtable must do so 

by request, as the number of 

participants in the roundtable is limited 

to ensure that all who are speaking will 

have a meaningful chance to do so. 

Members of the public who wish solely 

to observe need not submit a request. 

Any member of the public may submit 

written comments on issues raised at 

the roundtable or on any issue 

pertaining to deferral of examination. 

DATES: The roundtable will be held on 

Thursday, February 12, 2009, beginning 

at 9 a.m. and ending at 12:30 p.m. 

The deadline for receipt of requests to 

participate in the roundtable is 5 p.m. 

on Thursday, February 5, 2009. 

The deadline for receipt of written 

comments is February 26, 2009. 

ADDRESSES: The roundtable will be held 

in at the USPTO, in the Madison 

Auditorium on the concourse level of 

the Madison Building, which is located 

at 600 Dulany Street, Alexandria, 

Virginia. 

Requests to participate at the 

roundtable are required and must be 

submitted by electronic mail message 

through the Internet to 

robert.bahr@uspto.gov. Requests to 

participate at the roundtable should 

indicate the following information: (1) 

the name of the person desiring to 

participate and his or her contact 

information (telephone number and 

electronic mail address); and (2) the 

organization(s) he or she represents. 

Written comments should be sent by 

electronic mail message over the 

Internet addressed to 

AC6comments@uspto.gov. Comments 

may also be submitted by mail 

addressed to: Mail Stop Comments— 

Patents, Commissioner for Patents, P.O. 

Box 1450, Alexandria, VA 22313–1450, 

marked to the attention of Robert W. 

Bahr. Although comments may be 

submitted by mail, the USPTO prefers to 

receive comments via the Internet. 

The written comments and list of the 

roundtable participants and their 

associations will be available for public 

inspection at the Office of the 

Commissioner for Patents, located in 

Madison East, Tenth Floor, 600 Dulany 

Street, Alexandria, Virginia, and will be 

available via the USPTO Internet Web 


sroberts on PROD1PC70 with NOTICES
Federal Register / Vol. 74, No. 17 / Wednesday, January 28, 2009 / Notices 4947 

site (address: http://www.uspto.gov). 

Because comments will be made 

available for public inspection, 

information that is not desired to be 

made public, such as an address or 

phone number, should not be included 

in the comments. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Robert W. Bahr, Senior Patent Counsel, 

Office of the Deputy Commissioner for 

Patent Examination Policy, by telephone 

at (571) 272–8800, or by mail addressed 

to: Mail Stop Comments—Patents, 

Commissioner for Patents, P.O. Box 

1450, Alexandria, VA 22313–1450, 

marked to the attention of Robert W. 

Bahr. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Currently, 

many intellectual property (IP) offices 

that substantively examine patent 

applications do not perform a 

substantive examination on every patent 

application that is filed in the respective 

office. Specifically, a patent application 

is not given a substantive examination 

in many IP offices unless and until an 

applicant submits an express request for 

examination, and the failure to file any 

such request for examination within a 

specified time period results in 

abandonment or withdrawal of the 

application. This practice is commonly 

referred to as ‘‘deferred examination.’’ 

In the United States, the mere filing 

of a patent application and payment of 

the applicable fees is effectively a 

request for examination of the 

application. The USPTO frequently 

receives suggestions that the USPTO 

adopt a deferral of examination 

procedure. The USPTO has in place an 

optional deferred examination 

procedure that was adopted as part of 

the rule making to implement eighteenmonth publication of patent 

applications. See Changes to Implement 

Eighteen-Month Publication of Patent 

Applications, 65 FR 57023, 57033, 

57056 (Sept. 20, 2000), 1239 Off. Gaz. 

Pat. Office 63, 71–72, 92 (Oct. 10, 2000) 

(final rule). This deferral of examination 

procedure permits deferral of 

examination for up to three years from 

the earliest filing date for which a 

benefit is claimed under title 35, United 

States Code. See 37 CFR 1.103(d). The 

deferral of examination procedure set 

forth in 37 CFR 1.103(d), however, has 

been used in fewer than two hundred 

applications since its inception on 

November 29, 2000 (the effective date of 

eighteen-month publication and 37 CFR 

1.103(d)). 

The USPTO is conducting a 

roundtable to determine whether the 

support expressed for deferral of 

examination is isolated or whether there 

is general support in the patent 

community and/or the public sector 

generally for the adoption of some type 

of deferral of examination. The number 

of participants in the roundtable is 

limited to ensure that all who are 

speaking will have a meaningful chance 

to do so. The USPTO plans to invite a 

number of participants from patent user, 

practitioner, industry, and independent 

inventor organizations, academia, 

industry, and government. The USPTO 

also plans to have a few ‘‘at-large’’ 

participants based upon requests 

received in response to this notice to 

ensure that the USPTO is receiving a 

balanced array of views on deferral of 

examination. 

The roundtable is open to the public, 

but participation in the roundtable is by 

request, as the number of participants in 

the roundtable is limited. While 

members of the public who wish to 

participate in the roundtable must do so 

by request, members of the public who 

wish solely to observe need not submit 

a request. Any member of the public, 

however, may submit written comments 

on issues raised at the roundtable or on 

any pertaining to deferral of 

examination, for consideration by the 

USPTO. Persons submitting written 

comments should note that the USPTO 

does not plan to provide a ‘‘comment 

and response’’ analysis of such 

comments as this notice is not a notice 

of proposed rule making. 

The USPTO plans to make the 

roundtable available via Web cast. Web 

cast information will be available on the 

USPTO’s Internet Web site before the 

roundtable. The written comments and 

list of the roundtable participants and 

their associations will be posted on the 

USPTO’s Internet Web site. 

Dated: January 22, 2009. 

John J. Doll, 

Acting Under Secretary of Commerce for 

Intellectual Property and Acting Director of 

the United States Patent and Trademark 

Office. 

[FR Doc. E9–1740 Filed 1–27–09; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 3510–16–P 

DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE 

Office of the Secretary 

Meeting of the Defense Department 

Advisory Committee on Women in the 

Services (DACOWITS) 

AGENCY: Department of Defense. 

ACTION: Notice. 

SUMMARY: Pursuant to Section 10(a), 

Public Law 92–463, as amended, notice 

is hereby given of a forthcoming 

meeting of the Defense Department 

Advisory Committee on Women in the 

Services (DACOWITS). The purpose of 

the meeting is to receive briefings and 

information on the 2009 topics. The 

meeting is open to the public, subject to 

availability of space. 

DATES: February 18–19, 2009, 8:30 a.m.– 

5 p.m. 

ADDRESSES: Double Tree Hotel Crystal 

City National Airport, 300 Army Navy 

Drive, Arlington, VA 22202. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

MSgt Robert Bowling, USAF, 

DACOWITS, 4000 Defense Pentagon, 

Room 2C548A, Washington, DC 20301– 

4000. Robert.bowling@osd.mil. 

Telephone (703) 697–2122. Fax (703) 

614–6233. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

Meeting Agenda 

Wednesday, February 18, 2009 8:30 

a.m.–5 p.m. 

—Rand Report on Assessing the 

Assignment Policy for Army Women 

and Delivery of Services to Reserve 

Component Families. 

—National Guard Support for Families 

of Wounded Warriors. 

—Public Forum. 

Thursday, February 19, 2009 8:30 a.m.– 

5 p.m. 

—Additional Briefings on Women’s 

Roles during Deployment and 

Support to Families of the Wounded. 

—Review of Topics for 2009, 

Installation Visits, and Focus Group 

Discussions. 

Interested persons may submit a 

written statement for consideration by 

the Defense Department Advisory 

Committee on Women in the Services. 

Individuals submitting a written 

statement must submit their statement 

to the Point of Contact at the address 

detailed above not later than 5 p.m., 

Monday, February 16, 2009. If a written 

statement is not received by Monday, 

February 16, 2009 prior to the meeting, 

which is the subject of this notice, then 

it may not be provided to or considered 

by the Defense Department Advisory 

Committee on Women in the Services 

until its next open meeting. The 

Designated Federal Officer will review 

all timely submissions with the Defense 

Department Advisory Committee on 

Women in the Services Chairperson and 

ensure they are provided to the 

members of the Defense Department 

Advisory Committee on Women in the 

Services. If members of the public are 

interested in making an oral statement, 

a written statement must be submitted 

as above. After reviewing the written 

comments, the Chairperson and the 

Designated Federal Officer will 


sroberts on PROD1PC70 with NOTICES