A work-sharing pilot program called
the New Route is being established between the United States
Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) and the Japan Patent Office
(JPO). Under the New Route, a filing in one member office of this
arrangement would be deemed a filing in all member offices. The
first office and applicant would be given a 30-month processing
time frame in which to make available a first office action and any
necessary translations to the second office(s), and the second
office(s) would exploit the search and examination results of the
first office in conducting their own examination. The information
collection includes one proposed form, Request for Participation in
the New Route Pilot Program Between the JPO and the USPTO
(PTO/SB/10), which will be added to this collection. The USPTO
believes that the primary respondents will be businesses or other
for-profits, but not-for-profit institutions may also submit
information under this collection.
Due to the proposed addition of
the Request for Participation in the New Route Pilot Program
(PTO/SB/10), the USPTO estimates that the annual responses will be
800 and the annual burden hours will be 1,575, which is an increase
of 50 responses and 75 burden hours from the currently approved
burden for this collection. This burden increase is due to a
program change resulting from the addition of this new form in
support of the New Route program. For this proposed addition, the
USPTO also estimates that the total annual (non-hour) costs will
increase by $6,500, from $97,500 to $104,000 per year. This
increase is due to the addition of filing fees for Requests to
Participate in the New Route Pilot Program.
On behalf of this Federal agency, I certify that
the collection of information encompassed by this request complies
with 5 CFR 1320.9 and the related provisions of 5 CFR
1320.8(b)(3).
The following is a summary of the topics, regarding
the proposed collection of information, that the certification
covers:
(i) Why the information is being collected;
(ii) Use of information;
(iii) Burden estimate;
(iv) Nature of response (voluntary, required for a
benefit, or mandatory);
(v) Nature and extent of confidentiality; and
(vi) Need to display currently valid OMB control
number;
If you are unable to certify compliance with any of
these provisions, identify the item by leaving the box unchecked
and explain the reason in the Supporting Statement.