0651-00xx AIA Sec10 Fee Setting SupStmt-Sep2012

SUPPORTING STATEMENT
United States Patent and Trademark Office
America Invents Act Section 10 Patent Fee Adjustments
OMB CONTROL NUMBER 0651-00xx
(September 2012)

A.

JUSTIFICATION

1.

Necessity of Information Collection

The USPTO is submitting this request in support of the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking
titled “Setting and Adjusting Patent Fees” (RIN 0651-AC54) published in the Federal
Register on September 6, 2012 (77 Fed. Reg. 55028).
The United States Patent and Trademark Office (“USPTO” or “Office”) proposes to set
or adjust patent fees as authorized by the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act (“Act” or
“AIA”) Pub.L.112-29. The proposed fees will provide the Office with a sufficient amount
of aggregate revenue to recover its aggregate cost of patent operations and will help the
Office implement a sustainable funding model, reduce the current patent application
backlog, decrease patent pendency, improve patent quality, and upgrade the Office’s
patent business information technology (“IT”) capability and infrastructure. The Office
also proposes to reduce fees for a new class of patent applicants, “micro entities,” under
section 10(g) of the Act and proposes to include multipart and staged fees for requests
for continued examination (“RCEs”) and appeals. These proposals will foster innovation
and increase application processing options.
Section 10(a) of the Act authorizes the Director of the USPTO to set or adjust by rule
any patent fee established, authorized, or charged under Title 35, United States Code
(“U.S.C.”) for any services performed by, or materials furnished by, the Office.
When fees are set or adjusted, the aggregate revenue from the patent fees may only be
set to recover the aggregate estimated costs to the Office for processing, activities,
services, and materials relating to patents, including administrative costs to the Office
with respect to such patent operations.
Under section 10(b) of the AIA, eligible small entities shall receive a 50 percent fee
reduction from the large entity fees for filing, searching, examining, issuing, appealing,
and maintaining patent applications and patents. The Act further provides that the
micro entities shall receive a 75 percent fee reduction for filing, searching, examining,
issuing, appealing, and maintaining patent applications and patents.
The Office proposes to set or adjust 352 patent fees – 94 apply to large entities (herein
the reference to “large entity” includes all entities other than small or micro entities), 94
to small entities, 93 to micro entities, and 71 are not entity-specific fees. Of the 94
large-entity fees, 66 are adjusted by the proposed rule, 19 are set at existing fee

amounts, and 9 are newly proposed in this rule. Of the 94 small-entity fees, 80 are
adjusted by the proposed rule, 5 are set at existing fee amounts, and 9 are newly
proposed in this rule. The 94 small-entity fees are set at a 50 percent reduction from
the large-entity fee amounts. The 93 micro-entity fees newly proposed in this rule are
set at a reduction of 75 percent from the large-entity fee amounts. Of the 71 fees that
are not entity specific, 6 are either adjusted or set as new fees in this rule and 65 are set
at existing fee amounts.
This information collection request is submitted as a fee-based burden collection to best
provide for comment and review of the fee adjustment burden impact of the proposed
rulemaking. The USPTO will maintain the information requirements and non-fee burden
for the information collection items within separate collections. This new collection will
be maintained for fee burden adjustments only. The relevant fee burdens will be
removed from their existing collections through non-substantive change requests to
discontinue counting those burdens twice and overstating the total respondent burden in
the USPTO inventory.
This information collection request (“ICR”) includes:


“Correct inventorship after first office action on the merits,” an item introduced in
this proposed rulemaking. The information collection requirements for this item
will eventually be moved into 0651-0031 Patent Processing (Updating), and the
fee will remain in this collection.



“Petitions to the Chief Administrative Patent Judge under 37 CFR 41.3,” an item
that is not covered by an existing information collection request and is added to
this submission because the fee is affected by the proposed rulemaking. The
information requirements for this item will eventually be moved into 0651-0063
Board of Patent Appeals and Interferences (BPAI) Actions, and the fee will
remain in this collection.



Fee adjustments to existing and pending items in the agency inventory.
Information requirements for those items will remain in their respective
collections and only the corresponding fees (as adjusted by the proposed
rulemaking) are submitted for this collection.



Response adjustments to existing and pending items in the agency inventory
projected to be impacted by the fee adjustments because changes in some fees
are expected to change demand for those services, which changes the number
of responses. Information requirements for those items will remain in their
respective collections and only the corresponding fees are submitted for this
collection. The response adjustments are offered here solely for the purpose of
capturing the total impact on burden due to the proposed rulemaking.

This ICR includes this supporting statement as well as three supplemental reference
documents in the form of appendices:

2

Appendix A (Existing Information Collections):
Statutory and regulatory
provisions, and needs and uses for items in existing information collections with
fee adjustments requested in this new collection.
Appendix B (Pending Information Collections):
Statutory and regulatory
provisions, and needs and uses for items in pending information collections with
fee adjustments requested in this new collection.
Appendix C (Existing and Pending Collections and Fees Added in This Collection
Request): Fee burden calculations, broken out by item and fee category, and
response adjustments and effects on (hour) cost burden.
Table 1 identifies the statutory and regulatory provisions that authorize the USPTO to
collect the information for the two requirements added in this information collection
request:
Table 1: Information Requirements Added in this Collection
Requirement

Statute

Rule

Correct inventorship after first office action on the merits

35 U.S.C. § 115

37 CFR 1.17(d)

Petitions to the Chief Administrative Patent Judge under 37 CFR 41.3

35 U.S.C. § 134

37 CFR 41.3

2.

Needs and Uses

The public uses this information collection to pay their required fees and communicate
with the USPTO regarding their applications and patents procedures. The USPTO uses
these fees to process applicants’ patents and to process applicants’ requests for various
procedures in application and post-grant patent processing and all associated services
of the USPTO. See Table 2, Appendix A and Appendix B for a listing of all Needs and
Uses in the existing and pending collections.
Table 2 outlines how the two information requirements introduced in this submission are
used by the public and by the USPTO:
Table 2: Needs and Uses for Information Requirements Added in this Collection
Form and Function

Form #

Needs and Uses

Correct inventorship after first office action on
the merits

No Form

 Permits individuals to either add previously unnamed
persons as inventors or to delete previously named
persons as inventors after the first office action on the
merits.
 Allows the USPTO to correct the inventorship in a
patent application.

Petitions to the Chief Administrative Patent
Judge under 37 CFR 41.3

No Form

 Permits parties to petition the Chief Administrative
Patent Judge on matters pending before the Board of
Patent Appeals and Interferences.
 Used by the Board of Patent Appeals and Interferences
to determine whether the necessary information has
been provided to grant the petition.

3

The Information Quality Guidelines from Section 515 of Public Law 106-554, Treasury
and General Government Appropriations Act for Fiscal Year 2001, apply to this
information collection, and this information collection and its supporting statement
comply with all applicable information quality guidelines, i.e., OMB and specific
operating unit guidelines.
3.

Use of Information Technology

The USPTO uses an extensive catalog of automated information systems to both collect
fee payments from applicants and to ensure compliance with procedural and payment
requirements. The Department of the Treasury’s Financial Management Service
(“FMS”) also collects user fees on behalf of USPTO; maintenance fees may be paid via
deposit to an FMS lockbox. FMS incurs the administrative cost of lockbox payments
received from USPTO payers. The primary payment processing system at the USPTO
is the Revenue Accounting Management (“RAM”) System. Patent fee payments are
accepted through credit cards, Pay.gov-accepting credit cards or automated clearing
house (“ACH”) transfers, lockbox electronic check processing (“ECP”), and Treasury
General Account (“TGA”) deposits. USPTO also accepts replenishments to deposit
accounts through wire transfers, lockbox ECP, and TGA deposits. Payments for some
fees from foreign sources are sent through wire transfers. Payers for patent fees are
individuals, attorneys, law firms, small businesses, non-profits, and large corporations.
Patent fees are also paid by annuity companies.
Likewise, in many cases, forms associated with fee collection are available at the
USPTO website, www.uspto.gov, in ADOBE© portable document format (“PDF”) or
form-fillable ADOBE© PDF when possible. The Office also allows the public to set up
accounts online for fee payments.
4.

Efforts to Identify Duplication

The information associated with the items added through this submission is collected
during the pendency of a patent examination (correct inventorship item) or when parties
petition the Chief Administrative Patent Judge concerning matters pending before the
BPAI (petition to Chief APJ item). In most situations the information is not collected
elsewhere and does not result in a duplication of effort. In certain cases information
submitted with petitions may have been submitted earlier as part of the examination
process and may be resubmitted through these collections to correct or clarify an issue.
The information associated with all items in this submission is necessary to process and
record fee payments. This information is not collected elsewhere and does not result in
a duplication of effort by respondents. Although the USPTO will be reporting some of
the fee burdens twice (in this submission and in the existing and pending collections)
until the agency can delete these fees from their existing information collections, the
respondents themselves only pay the fees in question once and thus need not duplicate
their efforts.

4

5.

Minimizing the Burden to Small Entities

The information collection involves the reduction of fee burden on small entities,
including provisions for an additional reduction of fee burden for a new class of small
entities, micro entities.
6.

Consequences of Less Frequent Collection

This information is collected only when the public submits a fee payment. If this
information were not collected, the USPTO would not be able to conduct business
associated with the particular fee. This information could not be collected less
frequently.
7.

Special Circumstances in the Conduct of Information Collection

There are no special circumstances associated with this collection of information.
8.

Consultation Outside the Agency

The Notice of Proposed Rulemaking for RIN 0651-AC54 was published in the Federal
Register on September 6, 2012 (77 Fed. Reg. 55028).
The USPTO has consulted with the public about the AIA in general through the agency
microsite at http://www.uspto.gov/aia_implementation/index.jsp.
As directed by the Act, the Director must provide the Patent Public Advisory Committee
(PPAC) with new proposed fees at least 45 days prior to publishing the proposed fees in
the Federal Register. The PPAC then has 30 days to deliberate, consider, and
comment on the proposal, as well as hold public hearing(s) on the proposed fees.
Consistent with this framework, on February 7, 2012, the Director notified the PPAC of
the Office’s intent to set or adjust patent fees and submitted a preliminary patent fee
proposal with supporting materials. The preliminary patent fee proposal and associated
materials are available at http://www.uspto.gov/about/advisory/ppac.
The PPAC
announced two public hearings in the Federal Register on January 30, 2012, (77 Fed.
Reg. 19). The first hearing was in Alexandria, Virginia, on February 15, 2012; the
second one was in Sunnyvale, California, on February 23, 2012. Transcripts of these
hearings and comments submitted to the PPAC in writing are available for review at
http://www.uspto.gov/about/advisory/ppac. The PPAC is considering public comments
from these hearings and will make available to the public a written report setting forth in
detail the comments, advice, and recommendations of the committee regarding the
preliminary proposed fees. The PPAC is scheduled to release its report no later than
July 2012.
The Office will consider and analyze any comments, advice, or recommendations
received from PPAC before publishing a final rule. Lastly, Section 10(e) of the Act

5

requires the USPTO to publish the final fee rule in the Federal Register and the Official
Gazette of the Patent and Trademark Office 45 days before the final fees become
effective and to notify Congress of the proposed change.
9.

Payment or Gifts to Respondents

This information collection does not involve a payment or gift to any respondent.
10.

Assurance of Confidentiality

In order to protect the confidentiality of credit card account information when making fee
payments, customers should submit credit card payments on a separate credit card
payment form provided by the USPTO for this purpose, which is covered under OMB
Control Number 0651-0043. The USPTO will not include the credit card information
submitted using the provided credit card payment forms among the patent records open
to public inspection. If a customer supplies credit card information on a form or
document (e.g., in correspondence related to a patent) other than a credit card payment
form provided by the USPTO, the USPTO will not be liable if the credit card information
becomes public knowledge.
Confidentiality of patent applications is governed by 35 U.S.C. § 122 and 37 CFR 1.11
and 1.14. Upon publication of an application or issuance of a patent, the entire patent
application file is made available to the public, subject to provisions for providing only a
redacted copy of the file contents. The prosecution history contained in the application
file is critical for determining the scope of the property right conferred by a patent grant.
Under 37 CFR 1.22(b), “All fees paid to the United States Patent and Trademark Office
must be itemized in each individual application, patent, or other proceeding in such a
manner that it is clear for which purpose the fees are paid.”
11.

Justification for Sensitive Questions

None of the required information is considered to be sensitive.
12.

Total Annual (Hourly) Cost Burden to Respondents

This collection contains fees associated with existing and pending information
collections as well as two fees associated with the information requirements added by
this request. The USPTO estimates that the total annual responses for all fees in this
information collection will be 5,832,472. Because this information collection only
includes the information requirements of the two items added to this collection and does
not include the information requirements of any item in any existing or pending
collection, the USPTO estimates that the total burden hours for this collection will be
1,660 (for the two added items), and estimates the number of annual responses for
those two items will be 665.

6

Estimates for the two information requirements added in this information collection are
as follows:


Respondent Calculation Factors
The USPTO estimates that it will receive a total of 665 responses per year for the
two information requirements added by this collection, of which 128 will be filed
by small entities (86 small entity responses for correct inventorship and 42 small
entity responses for petitions to the Chief APJ) and 39 will be filed by micro
entities (only applicable to fees for correct inventorship). The USPTO estimates
that 92% of these responses will be filed electronically.
These estimates are based on the Agency’s long-standing institutional
knowledge of and experience with the type of information collected by these
items.



Burden Hour Calculation Factors
The USPTO estimates that it will take the public 2 hours to complete the
information for the correct inventorship after first office action on the merits and 4
hours to complete the petitions to the chief administrative patent judge under 37
CFR 41.3. This includes time to gather the necessary information, create the
document, and submit the completed request to the USPTO. The USPTO
calculates that, on balance, it takes the same amount of time to gather the
necessary information, create the document, and submit it to the USPTO,
whether the applicant submits the information in paper form or electronically.
These estimates are based on the Agency’s long-standing institutional
knowledge of and experience with the type of information collected and the
length of time necessary to complete responses containing similar or like
information.



Respondent (Hourly) Cost Burden Calculation Factors
The USPTO uses a professional rate of $371 per hour for respondent cost
burden calculations, which is the mean rate for attorneys in private firms as
shown in the 2011 Report of the Economic Survey, published by the Committee
on Economics of Legal Practice of the American Intellectual Property Law
Association (AIPLA).

Table 3 calculates the anticipated burden hours and costs to the public of the
information requirements being added in this collection, based on the following factors:

7

Table 3: Burden Hour/Burden Cost to Respondents for Information Requirements Added by this
Collection
Item

Hours
(a)

Responses
(yr)
(b)

Burden
(hrs/yr)
(a) x (b)
(c)

Rate
($/hr)
(d)

Total Cost
($/hr)
(c) x (d)
(e)

Correct inventorship after first office action on the
merits (electronic)

2.0

465

930

$371.00

$345,030.00

Correct inventorship after first office action on the
merits (paper)

2.0

35

70

$371.00

$25,970.00

Petitions to the Chief Administrative Patent Judge
under 37 CFR 41.3 (electronic)

4.0

148

592

$371.00

$219,632.00

Petitions to the Chief Administrative Patent Judge
under 37 CFR 41.3 (paper)

4.0

17

68

$371.00

$25,228.00

665

1,660

Total

- - - - -

- - - - -

$615,860.00

Impact on Existing and Pending Collections
The adjustments that the proposed rulemaking makes to fees in the existing and
pending information collections will have an impact on the estimated number of
responses for the information requirements that are associated with those fees. The fee
adjustment for a particular service may cause a change in demand for that service,
which in turn will have an impact on the estimated burden hours and respondent cost
burden for those requirements. Although the affected information requirements will
remain in their respective collections, the impact on the total respondent cost burden for
these items caused by the change in responses is summarized in Table 4 below and is
provided in detail in Appendix C.
Table 4: Burden Impact due to Rulemaking and Non-Rulemaking Factors
Item

Responses

Burden Hours

Respondent (Hourly)
Cost Burden

Current burden for information requirements in existing and
pending collections associated with the fees in the proposed
rulemaking

5,555,130

37,304,532

$12,089,058,467.00

Rulemaking impact from the change in estimated responses
caused by fee adjustments in the proposed rulemaking

314,877

2,043,483

$668,546,734.00

Rulemaking impact from adding the Correct inventorship after
first office action on the merits to this collection

500

1,000

$371,000.00

Non-rulemaking impact from adding the Petitions to the Chief
Administrative Patent Judge under 37 CFR 41.3 to this
collection

165

660

$244,860.00

(38,200)

(6,494)

($2,110,550.00)

5,832,472

39,343,181

$12,756,110,511.00

Non-rulemaking impact from stayed fees
Totals

Responses: The total proposed responses for all affected fee items in this submission
is 5,832,472, which includes changes in estimated responses in existing and pending
collections due to the fee adjustments in the proposed rulemaking, as well as the

8

additional respondents for the two requirements added in this collection. This total also
includes a decrease in responses of 38,200 due to stayed fees related to the enrollment
of
registered
patent
attorneys
and
agents.
(See
www.uspto.gov/ip/boards/oed/practitioner/agents/forregisteredpractitioners.jsp). Those
fees have been included in this collection, but remain stayed, so the number of
responses for these fees is estimated to be 0.
Burden Hours: The change in estimated responses results in a corresponding change
in burden hours for the affected items as detailed in Table 4 above. However, except
for 1,660 hours for the two information requirements included in this submission (see
Table 3 above), these burden hours will remain in the existing and pending collections
for the other information requirements affected by this proposed rulemaking because
only the fees associated with these items are included in this submission, not the
information requirements themselves.
Respondent (Hourly) Cost Burden: The change in burden hours (due to the change in
the number of responses) results in a change in respondent (hourly) cost burden for the
affected items, as detailed in Table 4 above. Again, except for the $615,860 for the two
information requirements added in this submission (see Table 3 above), this respondent
(hourly) cost burden will remain in the existing and pending collections for the items
affected by this proposed rulemaking because only the fees associated with these items
are included in this submission, not the information requirements themselves.
The respondent cost burden calculations presented in Table 4 (and in more detail in
Appendix C) use the hourly rates as submitted in the previous information collection
requests for the associated requirements. These hourly rates are not updated for these
calculations at this time because this rulemaking affects neither the length of time to
respond to the information collection nor the cost per hour of such a response.
Information on the total respondent cost burden across all fees is included solely to
demonstrate that this rulemaking may change the total number of responses.
The responses, burden hours, and respondent (hourly) cost burden for the affected
information requirements in the existing and pending collections remain in their
respective collections and will be updated in separate submissions using nonsubstantive change requests.
13.

Total Annual (Non-hour) Cost Burden to Respondents

The USPTO estimates that the total annual (non-hour) cost burden for this collection will
be approximately $2,594,521,312, with $2,594,521,210 in fees and $102 in postage.
These totals include the annual (non-hour) cost burden of $493,852 ($493,750 in fees
and $102 in postage) for the information requirements added by this collection, as
outlined below, as well as the total non-hour cost burden across all fees affected by this
proposed rulemaking for which a PRA burden exists (some fees affected by the
rulemaking have no PRA burden, e.g., self-service copying fees, and have not been
included in this collection).

9

Fees
The total proposed fees for this collection are $2,594,521,210 as shown in the
Supplemental Appendix C spreadsheet. These total fees include the following:


the new and the amended fees for the existing and pending information
collections outlined in the notice of proposed rulemaking



fees for information requirements that have no proposed responses because the
fees
for
those
items
currently
are
stayed
(see
www.uspto.gov/ip/boards/oed/practitioner/agents/forregisteredpractitioners.jsp
and Supporting Statement for renewal of information collection 0651-0012, IC
Reference 201004-0651-001 at www.regulations.gov) and therefore no
responses for the fee-cost component are collected (see fee codes 9015-9020 in
Appendix C); the information requirements for these items remain in the existing
collection



the filing fee amount of $493,750 for the two items added in this collection, as
outlined in Table 5 below:

Table 5: Filing Fees – Non-hour Cost Burden for Information Requirements Added by this
Collection
Item

Responses
(a)

Correct inventorship after first office action on the merits

Filing Fees
(b)

Total Non-Hour
Cost Burden
(yr)
(a) x (b)

375

$1,000.00

$375,000.00

Correct inventorship after first office action on the merits (small entity)

86

$500.00

$43,000.00

Correct inventorship after first office action on the merits (micro entity)

39

$250.00

$9,750.00

Petitions to the Chief Administrative Patent Judge under 37 CFR 41.3

123

$400.00

$49,200.00

42

$400.00

$16,800.00

665

-------------

$493,750.00

Petitions to the Chief Administrative Patent Judge under 37 CFR 41.3
(small entity)
Total

Postage
The public may submit the forms in this collection to the USPTO in paper format by mail
through the U. S. Postal Service.
The total (non-hour) cost burden for postage for the information requirements added by
this collection is estimated to be $102 per year, as follows:

10

Table 6: Postage Costs – Non-hour Cost Burden for Information Requirements Added by this
Collection
Item

Responses by
Mail
(a)

Postage Cost
(b)

Correct inventorship after first office action on the merits

35

$1.30

$46.00

Petitions to the Chief Administrative Patent Judge under 37 CFR 41.3

17

$3.30

$56.00

Total

52

-------------

$102.00

14.

Total Non-Hour
Cost Burden
(yr)
(a) x (b)

Annual Cost to the Federal Government

For the two information requirements included in this collection, the estimates are as
follows:
The USPTO estimates that it takes a GS-5, step 1 approximately 5 minutes (0.08 hours)
to process the correct inventorship after first office action on the merits and
approximately 30 minutes (0.50 hours) to process the petitions to the chief
administrative patent judge under 37 CFR 41.3. The hourly rate for a GS-5, step 1, is
currently $16.33 according to the U.S. Office of Personnel Management’s (OPM’s)
wage chart, including locality pay for the Washington, DC area. When 30% is added to
account for a fully loaded hourly rate (benefits and overhead), the rate per hour for a
GS-5, step 1, is $21.23 ($16.33 + $4.90).
Estimates are based upon agency long-standing institutional knowledge of and
experience with processing the type of information collected and the length of time
necessary to process similar or like information.
Table 7 calculates the processing hours and costs of this information collection to the
Federal Government:
Table 7: Burden Hour/Burden Cost to the Federal Government for Information Requirements
Added by this Collection
Item

Hours
(a)

Responses
(yr)
(b)

Burden
(hrs/yr)
(a) x (b)
(c)

Rate
($/hr)
(d)

Total Cost
($/hr)
(c) x (d)
(e)

Correct inventorship after first office action on the
merits (electronic)

0.08

465

37

$21.23

$786.00

Correct inventorship after first office action on the
merits (paper)

0.08

35

3

$21.23

$64.00

Petitions to the Chief Administrative Patent Judge
under 37 CFR 41.3 (electronic)

0.50

148

74

$21.23

$1,571.00

Petitions to the Chief Administrative Patent Judge
under 37 CFR 41.3 (paper)

0.50

17

9

$21.23

$191.00

665

123

- - - - -

$2,612.00

Total

- - - - -

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15.

Reason for Changes in Annual Burden

Program changes and/or adjustments are made in support of the Notice of Proposed
Rulemaking titled “Setting and Adjusting Patent Fees” (RIN 0651-AC54). The proposed
rulemaking supports the enactment of the Section 10 provisions of the Leahy-Smith
America Invents Act (Pub.L.112-29). Please see 77 Fed. Reg. 55028 for detailed
information about the proposed fee adjustments impacting the inventory burdens.
Changes in Responses and Burden Hours
The USPTO estimates that the total responses for this information collection will be
5,832,472 and the total annual burden hours will be 1,660. The total responses
includes the responses currently in the USPTO inventory for the fees as changed by
this proposed rulemaking as well as the responses for the two information requirements
added by this submission. The total annual burden hours only reflects the burden hours
for the two information requirements added by this submission because no information
requirements were changed for any items in existing or pending collections with fees
affected by this proposed rulemaking.
Tables 8 and 9 show the impact of the rulemaking and non-rulemaking changes to the
response and burden hour estimates for this information collection:
Table 8: Response Changes – Rulemaking/Non-Rulemaking Impact
Current
Inventory

Rulemaking Impact

Non-rule Impact

Total Change

New Proposed
Response
Estimates

5,516,930

Increase of 314,877

0

Increase of 314,877

5,831,807

Correct
Inventorship After
First Office Action
on the Merits

0

Increase of 500

0

Increase of 500

500

Petitions to the
Chief
Administrative
Patent Judge

0

0

Increase of 165

Increase of 165

165

38,200

0

Decrease of 38,200

Decrease of 38,200

0

5,555,130

315,377

(38,035)

277,342

5,832,472

Fees in
Existing/Pending
Collections

Stayed Fees
Totals

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Table 9: Burden Hour Changes – Rulemaking/Non-Rulemaking Impact
Current
Inventory

Rulemaking Impact

Non-rule Impact

Total Change

New Proposed
Burden Hour
Estimates

Correct
Inventorship After
First Office Action
on the Merits

0

Increase of 1,000

0

Increase of 1,000

1,000

Petitions to the
Chief
Administrative
Patent Judge

0

0

Increase of 660

Increase of 660

660

Totals

0

1,000

660

1,660

1,660

For additional explanation of the impact that the change in responses will have on the
burden hours in the information collections that contain the information requirements for
the affected fees, please see Section 12 (Table 4) above and Appendix C.
Change in Respondent (Hourly) Cost Burden
This information collection will have a total respondent (hourly) cost burden of $615,860
for the information requirements added by this collection, as outlined in Section 12
(Table 3) above.
The fee adjustments to the current inventory of fees in the proposed rulemaking may
cause a change in demand for some services, which would impact the estimated
number of responses for the information requirements that are associated with those
fees. This change in the number of responses would impact the estimated burden
hours and respondent cost burden for those items. Although the affected information
requirements will remain in their respective collections, the impact on the total
respondent (hourly) cost burden for these items from the proposed rulemaking is
summarized below in Table 10 and provided in more detail in Appendix C.

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Table 10: Respondent (Hourly) Cost Burden Changes – Rulemaking/Non-Rulemaking Impact
Current
Inventory

Rulemaking
Impact

Non-rule Impact

Total Change

New Proposed
Respondent
Cost Burden
Estimate

Correct
Inventorship After
First Office Action
on the Merits

$0

Increase of
$371,000

$0

Increase of
$371,000

$371,000

Petitions to the
Chief
Administrative
Patent Judge

$0

$0

Increase of
$244,860

Increase of
$244,860

$244,860

Totals for Items
Added to this
Collection

$0

Increase of
$371,000

Increase of
$244,860

Increase of
$615,860

$615,860

Fees in
Existing/Pending
Collections

$12,086,947,917

Increase of
$668,546,734

$0

Increase of
$668,546,734

$12,755,494,651

$2,110,550

$0

Decrease of
$2,110,550

Decrease of
$2,110,550

$0

$12,089,058,467

$668,917,734

($1,865,690)

$667,052,044

$12,756,110,511

Stayed Fees

Totals Across All
Fees

For additional explanation of the impact that the change in responses will have on the
respondent (hourly) cost burden in the information collections that contain the
information requirements for the affected fees, please see Section 12 (Table 4) above
and Appendix C.
Change in Annual (Non-hour) Costs
The USPTO estimates that the total annual (non-hour) cost burden for this submission
will be $2,594,521,312. The total annual (non-hour) cost burden includes the fee
burden as changed by this proposed rulemaking as well as changes due to factors other
than the proposed rulemaking. These non-rule factors include the annual (non-hour)
cost burden for the existing requirement of petitions to the chief administrative patent
judge under 37 CFR 41.3, as well as updates to the USPTO fee schedule pre-dating
this rulemaking that have not yet been reflected in the USPTO inventory.
Table 11 shows the impact of the rulemaking and non-rulemaking changes to the
annual (non-hour) cost burden estimates for this information collection:

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Table 11: Annual (Non-hour) Cost Burden Changes – Rulemaking/Non-Rulemaking Impact
Current
Inventory

Fees in
Existing/Pending
Collections

Rulemaking
Impact

Non-rule Impact

Total Change

New Proposed
Annual (Nonhour) Cost
Burden
Estimate

$2,231,696,493

Increase of
$349,194,075

Increase of
$13,136,892

Increase of
$362,330,967

$2,594,027,460

Correct
Inventorship After
First Office Action
on the Merits

$0

Increase of
$427,750

$0

Increase of
$427,750

$427,750

Petitions to the
Chief
Administrative
Patent Judge

$0

$0

Increase of
$66,000

Increase of
$66,000

$66,000

$4,113,700

$0

Decrease of
$4,113,700

Decrease of
$4,113,700

$0

$2,235,810,193

$349,621,825

$9,089,192

$358,711,017

$2,594,521,210

$0

Increase of $46

Increase of $56

Increase of $102

$102

$2,235,810,193

$349,621,871

$9,089,248

$358,711,119

$2,594,521,312

Stayed Fees

Total Fees
Postage
Totals

16.

Project Schedule

There is no plan to publish this information for statistical use. No special publication of
the items discussed in this justification statement is planned.
17.

Display of Expiration Date of OMB Approval

The forms in this information collection will display the OMB control number and
expiration date of OMB approval.
18.

Exception to the Certificate Statement

This collection of information does not include any exceptions to the certificate
statement.

B.

COLLECTIONS OF INFORMATION EMPLOYING STATISTICAL METHODS

This collection of information does not employ statistical methods.

15