[Federal Register Volume 89, Number 243 (Wednesday, December 18, 2024)]
[Notices]
[Page 102868]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2024-29959]


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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

Patent and Trademark Office


Agency Information Collection Activities; Submission to the 
Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for Review and Approval; Comment 
Request; Matters Related to First Inventor To File

    The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) will submit 
the following information collection request to the Office of 
Management and Budget (OMB) for review and clearance in accordance with 
the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, on or after the date of 
publication of this notice. The USPTO invites comments on this 
information collection renewal, which helps the USPTO assess the impact 
of its information collection requirements and minimize the public's 
reporting burden. Public comments were previously requested via the 
Federal Register on Wednesday, October 9, 2024 during a 60-day comment 
period (89 FR 81894). This notice allows for an additional 30 days for 
public comment.
    Agency: United States Patent and Trademark Office, Department of 
Commerce.
    Title: Matters Related to First Inventor to File.
    OMB Control Number: 0651-0071.
    Needs and Uses: Section 3 of the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act 
(AIA), inter alia, amended 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 consistent with the 
objectives of the AIA, including the conversion of the United States 
patent system from a ``first to invent'' system to a ``first inventor 
to file'' system. The changes to 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 in section 3 of 
the AIA went into effect on March 16, 2013, but apply only to certain 
applications filed on or after March 16, 2013.
    This information collection covers information required by 37 CFR 
1.55(k), 1.78(a)(6), and 1.78(d)(6) to assist the USPTO in determining 
whether an application is subject to 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 as amended 
by Section 3 of the AIA, or 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 as in effect on March 
15, 2013. The information is only required in nonprovisional 
applications filed on or after March 16, 2013, that claim foreign 
priority to, or domestic benefit of, an application filed before March 
16, 2013. Moreover, the information is not required if the 
nonprovisional application filed on or after March 16, 2013, claims the 
benefit of an earlier application in which a statement under 37 CFR 
1.55(k), 1.78(a)(6), or 1.78(d)(6) has already been filed. Given the 
passage of time, it is increasingly rare for a newly filed 
nonprovisional application to claim foreign priority to, or domestic 
benefit of, an application filed before March 16, 2013, without also 
claiming benefit of an earlier application in which the statement has 
already been filed. Accordingly, the estimated responses for this 
collection continue to decrease.
    For this 30-day notice, the non-hourly cost burdens have been 
adjusted, for an overall increase of $1, due to an increase in the 
postage rate since the 60-day notice was published.
    Forms: None.
    Type of Review: Extension and revision of a currently approved 
information collection.
    Affected Public: Private sector.
    Respondent's Obligation: Required to obtain or retain benefits.
    Frequency: On occasion.
    Estimated Number of Annual Respondents: 50 respondents.
    Estimated Number of Annual Responses: 50 responses.
    Estimated Time per Response: The USPTO estimates that the responses 
in this information collection will take the public approximately 2 
hours to complete. This includes the time to gather the necessary 
information, create the document, and submit the completed item to the 
USPTO.
    Estimated Total Annual Respondent Burden Hours: 100 hours.
    Estimated Total Annual Respondent Non-hourly Cost Burden: $11.
    This information collection request may be viewed at 
www.reginfo.gov. Follow the instructions to view Department of 
Commerce, USPTO information collections currently under review by OMB.
    Written comments and recommendations for this information 
collection should be submitted within 30 days of the publication of 
this notice on the following website, www.reginfo.gov/public/do/PRAMain. Find this particular information collection by selecting 
``Currently under 30-day Review--Open for Public Comments'' or by using 
the search function and entering either the title of the information 
collection or the OMB Control Number, 0651-0071.
    Further information can be obtained by:
     Email: InformationCollection@uspto.gov. Include ``0651-
0071 information request'' in the subject line of the message.
     Mail: Justin Isaac, Office of the Chief Administrative 
Officer, United States Patent and Trademark Office, P.O. Box 1450, 
Alexandria, VA 22313-1450.

Justin Isaac,
Information Collections Officer, Office of the Chief Administrative 
Officer, United States Patent and Trademark Office.
[FR Doc. 2024-29959 Filed 12-17-24; 8:45 am]
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