0058 Saudi CWS final

JUSTIFICATION FOR NONMATERIAL/NONSUBSTANTIVE CHANGE

United States Patent and Trademark Office

Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH) Program

OMB CONTROL NUMBER 0651-0058

January 2020

Background

PPH agreements streamline the patent system by allowing patent examiners to avail themselves of the work product from other participating patent offices. Originally, the PPH program was limited to the utilization of search and examination results of national applications between cross filings under the Paris Convention. The newer PCT-PPH agreements have greatly expanded the potential of the PPH program by permitting participating patent offices to draw upon the positive results of the PCT work product from another participating office. The PCT-PPH pilot program uses international search reports, written opinions, and international preliminary examination reports developed within the framework of the PCT, thereby making the PPH program available to a larger number of applicants.

The forms in this information collection allow participants to file a request in a corresponding U.S. application and petition to make the U.S. application special under the PPH or PCT-PPH program. The PPH forms collect similar data; however, there is a unique form for each participant.

The USPTO is proposing to add a form to this information collection for a new participant, the Saudi Authority for Intellectual Property of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (SAIP) to the PPH Program. The PPH pilot program with the SAIP will commence on January 1, 2020, and will run for a period of three years ending on December 31, 2022. SAIP is partnering on a bilateral basis only and is not participating in the Global/IP5 PPH Program.

Summary of Changes

The USPTO is proposing to add one form to this information collection for a new participant in the PPH program: Request for Participation in the PPH Pilot Program between the SAIP and the USPTO (PTO/SB/20SA).

The form will be available on the PPH area of the USPTO Web site, http://www.uspto.gov/patents-getting-started/international-protection/patent-prosecution-highway-pph-fast-track

The addition of 10 responses and associated burdens is to reflect the addition of one form (PTO/SB/20SA) to this information collection. USPTO estimates that each response will take about 2 hours to complete and at an estimated hourly cost of $438 an hour.

Changes in Burden

The addition of the form will result in the following burden changes for this information collection:

Burden Type	Currently approved	Proposed change	New estimates
Responses	8,120	10	8,130
Burden Hours	16,240	20	16,260
Hourly Costs	$7,104,360	$8,760	$7,113,120
Annual (non-hour) costs	$0	$0	$0

This information collection does not include any annual (non-hour) costs, and there are no annual (non-hour) costs associated with the proposed changes to this information collection.

The revised 0651-0058 total burden is as follows:

• 8,130 respondents

• 16,260 burden hours

• $7,113,120 hourly costs

• $0 annual non-hour costs