Federal Register / Vol. 82, No. 208 / Monday, October 30, 2017 / Notices 50121 

The effective date of the continuation 

of the Order will be the date of 

publication in the Federal Register of 

this notice of continuation. Pursuant to 

section 751(c)(2) of the Act, the 

Department intends to initiate the next 

five-year review of the Order not later 

than 30 days prior to the fifth 

anniversary of the effective date of 

continuation. 

This five-year sunset review and this 

notice are in accordance with section 

751(c) of the Act and published 

pursuant to section 777(i)(1) of the Act 

and 19 CFR 351.218(f)(4). 

Dated: October 25, 2017. 

Gary Taverman, 

Deputy Assistant Secretary for Antidumping 

and Countervailing Duty Operations, 

performing the non-exclusive functions and 

duties of the Assistant Secretary for 

Enforcement and Compliance. 

[FR Doc. 2017–23537 Filed 10–27–17; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 3510–DS–P 

DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE 

National Oceanic and Atmospheric 

Administration 

RIN 0648–XF795 

North Pacific Fishery Management 

Council; Public Meeting 

AGENCY: National Marine Fisheries 

Service (NMFS), National Oceanic and 

Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), 

Commerce. 

ACTION: Notice of telephonic meeting. 

SUMMARY: The North Pacific Fishery 

Management Council (Council) Social 

Science Plan Team will meet 

telephonically on November 14, 2017. 

DATES: The meeting will be held on 

Tuesday, November 14, 2017, from 10 

a.m. to 3 p.m. Alaska Time. 

ADDRESSES: Teleconference only: (888) 

456–5038; Participant passcode: 

8480290. 

Council address: North Pacific 

Fishery Management Council, 605 W. 

4th Ave., Suite 306, Anchorage, AK 

99501–2252; telephone: (907) 271–2809. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Sam 

Cunningham, Council staff; telephone: 

(907) 271–2809. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

Agenda 

Tuesday, November 14, 2017 

The Social Science Planning Team 

(SSPT) will hold an organizational 

teleconference in advance of its 

inaugural annual meeting that will 

occur in Spring 2018. SSPT will elect an 

executive officer, establish contributing 

member roles and responsibilities, and 

discuss processes for public 

participation and reporting to the North 

Pacific Fishery Management Council 

and its advisory bodies. The meeting 

agenda also includes time to scope 

discussion topics for the Spring 2018 

annual meeting; those topics should 

further the SSPT’s objective of 

identifying information gaps or 

underutilized social science data 

collections, and strategizing to improve 

information resources over the mediumto long-term. 

The Agenda is subject to change, and 

the latest version will be posted at 

http://www.npfmc.org/committees/ 

social-science-planning-team/. 

Special Accommodations 

The meeting is physically accessible 

to people with disabilities. Requests for 

sign language interpretation or other 

auxiliary aids should be directed to 

Shannon Gleason at (907) 271–2809 at 

least 7 working days prior to the 

meeting date. 

Dated: October 25, 2017. 

Tracey L. Thompson, 

Acting Deputy Director, Office of Sustainable 

Fisheries, National Marine Fisheries Service. 

[FR Doc. 2017–23530 Filed 10–27–17; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 3510–22–P 

DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE 

National Oceanic and Atmospheric 

Administration 

RIN 0648–XF787 

Marine Mammals; File No. 21431 

AGENCY: National Marine Fisheries 

Service (NMFS), National Oceanic and 

Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), 

Commerce. 

ACTION: Notice; receipt of application. 

SUMMARY: Notice is hereby given that 

Gregory Bossart, V.M.D., Ph.D., Georgia 

Aquarium, 225 Baker Street Northwest, 

Atlanta, GA 30313, has applied in due 

form for a permit to conduct research on 

bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops 

truncatus). 

DATES: Written, telefaxed, or email 

comments must be received on or before 

November 29, 2017. 

ADDRESSES: The application and related 

documents are available for review by 

selecting ‘‘Records Open for Public 

Comment’’ from the ‘‘Features’’ box on 

the Applications and Permits for 

Protected Species (APPS) home page, 

https://apps.nmfs.noaa.gov, and then 

selecting File No. 21431 from the list of 

available applications. 

These documents are also available 

upon written request or by appointment 

in the Permits and Conservation 

Division, Office of Protected Resources, 

NMFS, 1315 East-West Highway, Room 

13705, Silver Spring, MD 20910; phone 

(301) 427–8401; fax (301) 713–0376. 

Written comments on this application 

should be submitted to the Chief, 

Permits and Conservation Division, at 

the address listed above. Comments may 

also be submitted by facsimile to (301) 

713–0376, or by email to 

NMFS.Pr1Comments@noaa.gov. Please 

include File No. 21431 in the subject 

line of the email comment. 

Those individuals requesting a public 

hearing should submit a written request 

to the Chief, Permits and Conservation 

Division at the address listed above. The 

request should set forth the specific 

reasons why a hearing on this 

application would be appropriate. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Shasta McClenahan or Amy Hapeman, 

(301) 427–8401. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The 

subject permit is requested under the 

authority of the Marine Mammal 

Protection Act of 1972, as amended 

(MMPA; 16 U.S.C. 1361 et seq.), and the 

regulations governing the taking and 

importing of marine mammals (50 CFR 

part 216). 

The applicant requests a five-year 

permit to assess individual, population, 

and comparative perspectives of 

bottlenose dolphin health in the Indian 

River lagoon and Mantanzas River, 

Florida. Up to 40 adult or juvenile 

bottlenose dolphins per year would be 

captured, sampled, and released for 

health assessments. Procedures for 

captured dolphins would include 

morphometrics, biological sampling 

(skin and blubber biopsy, blood, mucus 

membrane swabs, fecal, and urine), 

ultrasound, tooth extraction, and 

marking (freeze-brand or roto tag). 

Dolphins would only be sampled once 

per year. An additional 400 bottlenose 

dolphins may be harassed each year 

during vessel surveys for photography, 

videography, counts, and behavioral 

observations. Two unintentional 

mortalities may occur due to capture 

over the life of the permit. 

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 the 


sradovich on DSK3GMQ082PROD with NOTICES
50122 Federal Register / Vol. 82, No. 208 / Monday, October 30, 2017 / Notices 

application to the Marine Mammal 

Commission and its Committee of 

Scientific Advisors. 

Dated: October 24, 2017. 

Julia Harrison, 

Chief, Permits and Conservation Division, 

Office of Protected Resources, National 

Marine Fisheries Service. 

[FR Doc. 2017–23512 Filed 10–27–17; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 3510–22–P 

DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE 

Patent and Trademark Office 

[Docket No.: PTO–P–2017–0036] 

Expanded Collaborative Search Pilot 

Program 

AGENCY: United States Patent and 

Trademark Office, Commerce. 

ACTION: Notice. 

SUMMARY: The United States Patent and 

Trademark Office (USPTO) conducted 

two separate Collaborative Search Pilot 

Programs (CSPs) during the period of 

2015 through 2017. One of these 

programs was conducted with the Japan 

Patent Office (JPO) and the other with 

the Korean Intellectual Patent Office 

(KIPO). Improvements in patent quality 

and examination pendency were 

identified as positive outcomes from 

these two original CSPs. Building on the 

success of these two programs, the 

USPTO is participating in a new, 

expanded CSP (Expanded CSP) in 

which applicants may request that 

multiple partnering Intellectual 

Property (IP) offices exchange search 

results for their counterpart applications 

prior to formulating and issuing their 

office actions. In Expanded CSP, each 

designated partner IP office will 

independently conduct a prior art 

search for its corresponding counterpart 

application. The search results will then 

be exchanged between the designated 

partner IP office(s) and the USPTO 

before any IP office issues an office 

action. By this exchange of search 

results, the examiners in all designated 

partner IP offices will have a more 

comprehensive set of prior art 

references to consider when making 

initial patentability determinations. In 

addition to changing the number of IP 

offices that may be providing search 

results to the USPTO, Expanded CSP 

provides applicants with more 

flexibility by not requiring that 

applicants follow the procedures of the 

First Action Interview Pilot Program 

(FAI). Expanded CSP will allow the 

USPTO to study the impact on 

examination processes resulting from 

exchanges of search results between the 

USPTO and multiple partner IP offices 

prior to formulating and issuing office 

actions. 

DATES: Under Expanded CSP, the 

USPTO and partner IP offices will each 

accept requests to participate from 

November 1, 2017, through November 1, 

2020, and each IP office will not grant 

more than 400 requests per year per 

partner office. The offices may extend 

the pilot program (with or without 

modification), if necessary. Each office 

reserves the right to withdraw from the 

program at any time. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Inquiries regarding the handling of any 

specific application participating in the 

pilot may be directed to Daniel Hunter, 

Director of International Work Sharing, 

Planning, and Implementation, Office of 

International Patent Cooperation, by 

telephone at (571) 272–8050. Any 

inquiries regarding this pilot program 

can be emailed to csp@uspto.gov. 

Inquiries concerning this notice may be 

directed to Joseph F. Weiss, Jr., Senior 

Legal Advisor, Office of Patent Legal 

Administration, by phone (571) 272– 

7759. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

I. Background: The USPTO is 

continually looking for ways to improve 

the quality of issued patents and to 

promote work sharing with other IP 

offices throughout the world. Work 

sharing benefits applicants by 

promoting compact prosecution, 

reducing pendency, and supporting 

patent quality by reducing the 

likelihood of inconsistencies in 

patentability determinations (not 

predicated upon differences in national 

patent laws) between IP offices. The 

USPTO has launched numerous work 

sharing pilot programs, including the 

recently completed CSPs with JPO and 

KIPO. In these completed CSPs, the 

participating offices implemented 

administrative procedures to facilitate 

work sharing between the USPTO and a 

single designated partner IP office in the 

form of sharing search results of related 

counterpart applications. Feedback from 

the completed CSPs showed sufficiently 

positive benefits to justify expanding 

CSP to permit work sharing between the 

USPTO and more than one designated 

partner IP office for the same U.S. 

application. 

The USPTO will cooperate in an 

Expanded CSP to determine whether 

exchanging the results from searches 

independently performed by multiple IP 

offices, which occur substantially 

simultaneously, also increases the 

efficiency and quality of patent 

examination. This Expanded CSP is 

designed so that this exchange of search 

results would occur prior to the IP 

offices making initial patentability 

determinations. The current partner IP 

offices for the Expanded CSP are JPO 

and KIPO. The USPTO will announce 

future partner IP offices when they are 

designated. 

Currently, applicants in the USPTO 

having U.S. applications with claims of 

foreign priority may have search results 

and prior art cited to them by the 

foreign IP office during pendency of 

their U.S. applications. Often, 

applicants submit the prior art after 

examination on the merits is already 

underway in their U.S. application. 

Upon evaluation of the search results 

and cited prior art, the U.S. examiner 

may determine that the prior art cited by 

the foreign office is relevant to 

patentability and merits being used in 

further examination before making a 

final determination on patentability of 

the pending claims. This delay caused 

by further examination results in 

additional cost to applicants and the 

USPTO that could have been avoided if 

the U.S. examiner was in possession of 

the foreign office’s search results before 

commencing examination of the U.S. 

application. Furthermore, in light of the 

USPTO’s various expedited examination 

programs, the possibility exists that a 

U.S. application may reach final 

disposition before the applicant is in 

receipt of a foreign office’s search 

results. The exchange of search results 

between IP offices before an initial 

determination on patentability should 

increase efficiency and promote patent 

examination quality. 

In order to study the benefits of the 

exchange of search results between 

multiple IP offices, current USPTO 

examination practice will be modified 

for applications in Expanded CSP so 

that a search will be conducted and 

search results generated, without 

issuance of an Office action. The U.S. 

applications in Expanded CSP will also 

be ‘‘made special’’ pursuant to USPTO 

procedures to ensure that they are 

contemporaneously searched with their 

corresponding counterpart applications. 

In the original version of the CSP, the 

USPTO required the use of the First 

Action Interview Pilot Program (FAI), 

which bifurcated the prior art search 

from issuance of an Office action. The 

USPTO has determined that it is 

unnecessary to require applicants 

participating in Expanded CSP to use 

FAI procedures. Instead, applications in 

Expanded CSP will be accorded special 

status prior to first action on the merits 

(FAOM) and prior art references 

provided through the exchange of 

search results will be included in the 

FAOM. 


sradovich on DSK3GMQ082PROD with NOTICES