The general purpose of the Patent
Cooperation Treaty (PCT) is to standardize the format and filing
procedures so that applicants may file one international
application in one location, in one language, and pay one initial
set of fees to seek protection for an invention in more than 100
designated countries. This collection of information is necessary
so that respondents can apply for an international patent and so
that the USPTO can fulfill its duties to process, search, and
examine international patent applications under the provisions of
the PCT.
The USPTO is updating this
information collection to reflect the current practice and fee
structure for PCT applications entering the national stage at the
USPTO. The net decrease of 6,051 burden hours is due to both
program changes from requirements being added and deleted from this
collection to match the current PCT practice and administrative
adjustments due to revised estimates of the number of expected
filings for this collection. This collection also has a net
increase in annual (non-hour) cost burden of $110,158,233 due to
several factors, including changes in the estimated number of
filings, updates to the fee structure for PCT-related requests, and
the availability of electronic filing for PCT submissions.
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.