60-day Notice

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Federal Register / Vol. 80, No. 247 / Thursday, December 24, 2015 / Notices
Off. Gaz. Pat. Office 44, 47–49 (Jan. 4,
2011).
III. Important Reminders: Applicants
are reminded that the disclosure of an
invention in a provisional application
should be as complete as possible
because the claimed subject matter in
the later-filed nonprovisional
application must have support in the
provisional application in order for the
applicant to obtain the benefit of the
filing date of the provisional
application.
Furthermore, the nonprovisional
application as originally filed must have
a complete disclosure that complies
with 35 U.S.C. 112(a) and is sufficient
to support the claims submitted on
filing and any claims submitted later
during prosecution. New matter cannot
be added to an application after the
filing date of the application. See 35
U.S.C. 132(a). In the rulemaking to
implement the PLT and title II of the
PLTIA, the Office provided that, in
order to be accorded a filing date, a
nonprovisional application (other than
an application for a design patent) must
include a specification with or without
claims. See Changes To Implement the
Patent Law Treaty, 78 FR 62367, 62369
(Oct. 21, 2013) (final rule). This change
was effective on December 18, 2013, and
applies to any application filed under
35 U.S.C. 111 on or after December 18,
2013. Although a claim is not required
in a nonprovisional application (other
than an application for a design patent)
for filing date purposes and the
applicant may file an amendment
adding additional claims as prescribed
by 35 U.S.C. 112 and drawings as
prescribed by 35 U.S.C. 113 later during
prosecution, the applicant should
consider the benefits of submitting a
complete set of claims and any
necessary drawings on filing of the
nonprovisional application. This would
reduce the likelihood that any claims
and/or drawings added later during
prosecution might be found to contain
new matter. Also, if a patent is granted
and the patentee is successful in
litigation against an infringer,
provisional rights to a reasonable
royalty under 35 U.S.C. 154(d) may be
available only if the claims that are
published in the patent application
publication are substantially identical to
the patented claims that are infringed,
assuming timely actual notice is
provided. Thus, the importance of the
claims that are included in the patent
application publication should not be
overlooked.
Applicants are also advised that the
extended missing parts period does not
affect the 12-month priority period
provided by the Paris Convention for

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the Protection of Industrial Property
(Paris Convention). Accordingly, any
foreign filings must, in most cases, still
be made within 12 months of the filing
date of the provisional application if the
applicant wishes to rely on the
provisional application in the foreignfiled application or if protection is
desired in a country requiring filing
within 12 months of the earliest
application for which rights are left
outstanding in order to be entitled to
priority.
For additional reminders, see Pilot
Program for Extended Time Period To
Reply to a Notice to File Missing Parts
of Nonprovisional Application, 75 FR
76401, 76405 (Dec. 8, 2010), 1362 Off.
Gaz. Pat. Office 44, 50 (Jan. 4, 2011).
Dated: December 18, 2015.
Michelle K. Lee,
Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual
Property and Director of the United States
Patent and Trademark Office.
[FR Doc. 2015–32469 Filed 12–23–15; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3510–16–P

COMMODITY FUTURES TRADING
COMMISSION
Agency Information Collection
Activities: Proposed Collection
Revision, Comment Request: Final
Rule for Records of Commodity
Interest and Related Cash or Forward
Transactions
Commodity Futures Trading
Commission.
ACTION: Notice.
AGENCY:

The Commodity Futures
Trading Commission (‘‘CFTC’’ or the
‘‘Commission’’) is announcing an
opportunity for public comment on the
proposed revision to the collection of
certain information by the Commission.
Under the Paperwork Reduction Act
(‘‘PRA’’), Federal agencies are required
to publish notice in the Federal Register
concerning each proposed collection of
information and to allow 60 days for
public comment. The Commission
recently adopted a final rule that
amends the Commission Regulation
dealing with records of commodity
interest and related cash or forward
transactions (the ‘‘Final Rule’’). The
Final Rule modifies some of the
recordkeeping requirements that apply
to certain participants in the markets
regulated by the Commission. This
notice solicits additional comments on
the PRA implications of the amended
recordkeeping requirements that are set
forth in the Final Rule, including
comments that address the burdens
associated with the modified

SUMMARY:

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information collection requirements of
the Final Rule.
DATES: Comments must be submitted on
or before February 22, 2016.
ADDRESSES: You may submit comments,
identified by ‘‘OMB Control No. 3038–
0090; Records of Commodity Interest
and Related Cash or Forward
Transactions Collection,’’ by any of the
following methods:
• The Commission’s Web site, via its
Comments Online process at http://
comments.cftc.gov/. Follow the
instructions for submitting comments
through the Web site.
• Mail: Christopher Kirkpatrick,
Secretary of the Commission,
Commodity Futures Trading
Commission, Three Lafayette Centre,
1155 21st Street NW., Washington, DC
20581.
• Hand Delivery/Courier: Same as
Mail above.
• Federal eRulemaking Portal: http://
www.regulations.gov/. Follow the
instructions for submitting comments
through the Portal.
Please submit your comments using
only one method.
All comments must be submitted in
English, or if not, accompanied by an
English translation. Comments will be
posted as received to http://
www.cftc.gov.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
Katherine Driscoll, Associate Chief
Counsel, (202) 418–5544, kdriscoll@
cftc.gov; August A. Imholtz III, Special
Counsel, (202) 418–5140, aimholtz@
cftc.gov; or Lauren Bennett, Special
Counsel, (202) 418–5290, lbennett@
cftc.gov, Division of Swap Dealer and
Intermediary Oversight, Commodity
Futures Trading Commission, 1155 21st
Street NW., Washington, DC 20581.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The Final
Rule amends Regulation 1.35(a). The
collections of information related to
Regulation 1.35(a) have been previously
reviewed and approved by OMB in
accordance with the PRA 1 and assigned
OMB Control Number 3038–0090.
Section 3506(c)(2)(A) of the PRA, 44
U.S.C. 3506(c)(2)(A), requires Federal
agencies to provide a 60-day notice in
the Federal Register concerning each
proposed collection of information
before submitting the collection to OMB
for approval. To comply with this
requirement, the CFTC is publishing
notice of the proposed revision to the
collection of information listed below.
Title: Adaption of Regulations to
Incorporate Swaps—Records of
Transactions (OMB Control No. 3038–
0090). This is a request for an extension
1 44

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Federal Register / Vol. 80, No. 247 / Thursday, December 24, 2015 / Notices

and revision of a currently approved
information collection.
Abstract: The Commission amended
Regulation 1.35(a) to: (1) Exclude
members of designated contract markets
(‘‘DCMs’’) and members of swap
execution facilities (‘‘SEFs’’) that are not
registered or required to register with
the Commission (‘‘Unregistered
Members’’) from the requirement to
keep written communications that lead
to the execution of a commodity interest
transaction and related cash or forward
transactions; (2) exclude Unregistered
Members from the requirement to
maintain records in a particular form
and manner; (3) exclude Unregistered
Members from the requirement to retain
text messages; (4) exclude commodity
trading advisors (‘‘CTAs’’) from the oral
recordkeeping requirement; and (5)
provide that all records required to be
kept under the regulation must be kept
in a form and manner which permits
prompt, accurate and reliable location,
access, and retrieval of any particular
record, data, or information; and clarify
that all records, except records of oral
and written communications leading to
the execution of a transaction in a
commodity interest and related cash or
forward transactions, must be kept in a
form and manner that allows for
identification of a particular transaction.
With respect to the collection of
information, the CFTC invites
comments on:
• Whether the proposed revision to
the collection of information is
necessary for the proper performance of
the functions of the Commission,
including whether the information will
have a practical use;
• The accuracy of the Commission’s
estimate of the burden of the proposed
revision to the collection of information,
including the validity of the
methodology and assumptions used;
• Ways to enhance the quality,
usefulness, and clarity of the
information to be collected; and
• Ways to minimize the burden of
collection of information on those who
are to respond, including through the
use of appropriate automated electronic,
mechanical, or other technological
collection techniques or other forms of
information technology; e.g., permitting
electronic submission of responses.
All comments must be submitted in
English, or if not, accompanied by an
English translation. Comments will be
posted as received to http://
www.cftc.gov. You should submit only
information that you wish to make
available publicly. If you wish the
Commission to consider information
that you believe is exempt from
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Information Act, a petition for
confidential treatment of the exempt
information may be submitted according
to the procedures established in
Regulation 145.9.2
The Commission reserves the right,
but shall have no obligation, to review,
pre-screen, filter, redact, refuse or
remove any or all of your submission
from http://www.cftc.gov that it may
deem to be inappropriate for
publication, such as obscene language.
All submissions that have been redacted
or removed that contain comments on
the merits of the information collection
request will be retained in the public
comment file and will be considered as
required under the Administrative
Procedure Act and other applicable
laws, and may be accessible under the
Freedom of Information Act.
Burden Statement: In the Notice of
Proposed Rulemaking, the
Commission’s preliminary estimate
stated that no additional recordkeeping
or information collection requirements
or changes to existing collection
requirements would result from the
proposed amendments to Regulation
1.35(a).3 The Commission subsequently
determined, however, that the
amendments to Regulation 1.35(a) likely
will reduce the current information
collection burdens on affected market
participants under OMB control number
3038–0090.
1. Exclusion of Unregistered Members
From Requirement To Maintain
Records of Pre-Trade Written
Communications
Pursuant to the prior version of
Regulation 1.35(a), which was
published in 2012, Unregistered
Members were required to keep written
communications that lead to the
execution of a commodity interest
transaction and related cash or forward
transactions.4 The Final Rule states that
Unregistered Members are not required
to keep written communications that
lead to the execution of a commodity
interest transaction and related cash or
forward transactions. Therefore, their
compliance costs, and the associated
information collection burden, with
respect to this particular aspect of the
rule will be eliminated. The
Commission estimates that this change
to Regulation 1.35(a) will decrease the
information collection burden under the
rule by approximately one-half hour per
CFR 145.9.
Records of Commodity Interest and Related
Cash or Forward Transactions, 79 FR 68140, 68144
(Nov. 4, 2014).
4 See Adaptation of Regulations to Incorporate
Swaps—Records of Transactions, 77 FR 75523 (Dec.
21, 2012) (the ‘‘2012 Rule’’).

week per entity. The Commission
estimates based on select market data
that there are approximately 3,200
Unregistered Members that will have
their recordkeeping obligations reduced
as a result of this element of the Final
Rule.
2. Exclusion of Unregistered Members
From Requirement To Maintain
Records in a Particular Form and
Manner
Pursuant to the prior version of
Regulation 1.35(a), which was
published in 2012, Unregistered
Members were required to comply with
the form and manner requirements of
the rule.5 The Final Rule states that
Unregistered Members are not required
to keep their required records in a
prescribed form and manner. Therefore,
their compliance costs, and the
associated information collection
burden, with respect to this particular
aspect of the rule will be eliminated.
The Commission estimates that this
change to Regulation 1.35(a) will
decrease the information collection
burden under the rule by approximately
one-half hour per month per entity. The
Commission estimates based on select
market data that there are approximately
3,200 Unregistered Members that will
have their recordkeeping obligations
reduced as a result of this element of the
Final Rule.
3. Exclusion of Unregistered Members
From Requirement To Retain Text
Messages
The records that must be kept under
Regulation 1.35 include text messages,
as well as other forms of electronic
records. The Final Rule amends
Regulation 1.35(a) to provide that
Unregistered Members are not required
to maintain records of text messages.6
The Final Rule defines ‘‘text messages’’
as written communications sent from
one telephone number to one or more
telephone numbers by short message
service (‘‘SMS’’) or multimedia
messaging service (‘‘MMS’’). It can be
difficult or cumbersome to transfer SMS
and MMS messages to computers,
storage devices, or storage media, and to
maintain and access the messages on an
ongoing basis. Therefore, the
Commission believes that eliminating
this requirement for Unregistered
Members will reduce their
recordkeeping burden by eliminating
the time required to periodically

2 17

3 See

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5 Id.
6 Although the 2012 Rule required Unregistered
Members to keep text messages, Commission staff
granted Unregistered Members no-action relief from
this requirement in May 2014 (see CFTC Staff Letter
No. 14–72).

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Federal Register / Vol. 80, No. 247 / Thursday, December 24, 2015 / Notices
transfer these messages to computers,
storage devices, or storage media, as
well as the time required to periodically
confirm the transfer and retention of the
messages. The Commission estimates
that Unregistered Members would
spend approximately one-half hour per
month preserving and maintaining text
messages in the manner described
above. The Commission estimates based
upon select market data that there are
approximately 3,200 Unregistered
Members that will have their
recordkeeping obligations reduced as a
result of this element of the Final Rule.
4. Exclusion of CTAs From
Requirement To Record Oral
Communications
Pursuant to the Final Rule, CTAs will
no longer be required to record oral
communications.7 In the 2012 Rule, the
Commission added the requirement that
certain types of firms, including CTAs
that are members of a DCM or of a SEF,
record all oral communications that lead
to the execution of a transaction. Under
the Final Rule, CTAs that are members
of a DCM or of a SEF no longer have to
comply with this requirement, and they
therefore no longer have to administer a
recording program and maintain a
recording infrastructure. The
Commission estimates that these CTAs
would spend approximately one-half
hour per week administering a
recording program and maintaining
recording infrastructure. The
Commission estimates that there are
approximately 1,175 CTAs that will
have their recordkeeping obligations
reduced as a result of this element of the
Final Rule.8
5. Form and Manner Requirements, in
General

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Pursuant to the Final Rule, all records
required to be kept under Regulation
1.35(a) must be kept in a form and
manner which permit prompt, accurate
and reliable location, access, and
retrieval of any particular record, data,
or information. In addition, the Final
Rule also states that all records, except
records of oral and written
communications leading to the
execution of a transaction in a
commodity interest and related cash or
forward transactions, must be kept in a
form and manner that allows for
7 Pursuant

to CFTC Staff Letter Nos. 14–60, 14–
147 and 15–65, Commission staff granted no-action
relief to CTAs from the requirement to record oral
communications.
8 As of November 2015, there were approximately
2,350 CTAs registered with the Commission. For
the purposes of this analysis, the Commission is
conservatively estimating that half of registered
CTAs are members of a DCM or of a SEF.

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identification of a particular transaction.
These new requirements replace the
former requirement in the previous
version of the rule that required records
be ‘‘identifiable and searchable by
transaction.’’ The Commission views
these revised form and manner
requirements as a clarification of the
prior requirements. Accordingly, the
revised form and manner requirements
do not increase or decrease the
information collection burden for
market participants that are subject to
Regulation 1.35(a).
The Commission estimates the burden
of this collection of information as
follows:
Respondents/Affected Entities:
Futures Commission Merchants, Retail
Foreign Exchange Dealers, Introducing
Brokers, and Members of a DCM or of
a SEF.
Estimated number of respondents:
6,000.
Estimated total annual burden on
respondents: 319,707 hours.
Frequency of collection: Ongoing.
Authority: 44 U.S.C. 3501 et seq.)
Dated: December 18, 2015.
Christopher J. Kirkpatrick,
Secretary of the Commission.
[FR Doc. 2015–32417 Filed 12–23–15; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6351–01–P

DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE
Office of the Secretary
[Docket ID: DoD–2014–OS–0063]

Submission for OMB Review;
Comment Request
ACTION:

Notice.

The Department of Defense
has submitted to OMB for clearance, the
following proposal for collection of
information under the provisions of the
Paperwork Reduction Act.
DATES: Consideration will be given to all
comments received by January 25, 2016.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Fred
Licari, 571–372–0493.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Title, Associated Form and OMB
Number: Pentagon Facilities Parking
Program; DD Form 1199; OMB Control
Number 0704–0395.
Type of Request: Reinstatement, with
change, of a previous approved
collection for which approval has
expired.
Number of Respondents: 4,200.
Responses per Respondent: 1.
Annual Responses: 4,200.
Average Burden per Response: 5
minutes.
SUMMARY:

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Annual Burden Hours: 350.
Needs and Uses: The information
collection requirement is necessary to
administer the Pentagon, Mark Center,
and Suffolk Building Vehicle Parking
Program where individuals are allocated
parking spaces, and to ensure that
unless authorized to do so, parking
permit applicants do not also receive
the DoD National Capital Region Public
Transportation fare subsidy benefit.
Affected Public: Individuals or
households.
Frequency: On occasion.
Respondent’s Obligation: Requires to
obtain or retain benefits.
OMB Desk Officer: Ms. Jasmeet
Seehra.
Comments and recommendations on
the proposed information collection
should be emailed to Ms. Jasmeet
Seehra, DoD Desk Officer, at
[email protected]. Please
identify the proposed information
collection by DoD Desk Officer and the
Docket ID number and title of the
information collection.
You may also submit comments and
recommendations, identified by Docket
ID number and title, by the following
method:
• Federal eRulemaking Portal: http://
www.regulations.gov. Follow the
instructions for submitting comments.
Instructions: All submissions received
must include the agency name, Docket
ID number and title for this Federal
Register document. The general policy
for comments and other submissions
from members of the public is to make
these submissions available for public
viewing on the Internet at http://
www.regulations.gov as they are
received without change, including any
personal identifiers or contact
information.
DoD Clearance Officer: Mr. Frederick
Licari.
Written requests for copies of the
information collection proposal should
be sent to Mr. Licari at WHS/ESD
Directives Division, 4800 Mark Center
Drive, East Tower, Suite 02G09,
Alexandria, VA 22350–3100.
Dated: December 21, 2015.
Aaron Siegel,
Alternate OSD Federal Register Liaison
Officer, Department of Defense.
[FR Doc. 2015–32518 Filed 12–23–15; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 5001–06–P

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