The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) is required by 35 U.S.C. § 131 et seq. to examine an application for patent and, when appropriate, issue a patent. The USPTO is also required to publish patent applications, with certain exceptions, promptly after the expiration of a period of eighteen months from the earliest filing date for which a benefit is sought under Title 35, United States Code ("eighteen-month publication"). Many actions taken by the USPTO during its examination of an application for patent or for reissue of a patent, or during its reexamination of a patent, are subject to review by an appeal to the Board of Patent Appeals and Interferences. For other USPTO actions, review is in the form of administrative review obtained via a petition. These petitions also allow patent applicants or owners an opportunity to supply additional required information. The fees for the requirements in this collection have been moved into 0651-0072 America Invents Act Section 10 Patent Fee Adjustments (approved by OMB in January 2013). The USPTO is submitting this request to remove the fees from this collection to avoid double-counting them. This request only removes the affected fees from the annual (non-hour) cost burden. The items and other burden information remain in 0651-0059. The collection's name has been changed from "Patent Petitions formerly requiring a fee" to the new name which denotes the specific types of fees that these petitions relate to.
Filing fees have been added to collection 0651-0059 from collection 0651-0072, following the discontinuation of 0651-0072 to provide accurate accounting of the fees. This program change results in an increase in annual burden, time burden, and cost burden.
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.
Petitions requiring the petition fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(g) (Group III)