Reinstatement with change of a previously approved collection
No
Regular
04/06/2021
Requested
Previously Approved
36 Months From Approved
226,573
0
13,641
0
26,241
0
The public uses this information
collection to grant or revoke power of attorney, to withdraw as
attorney or agent of record, to authorize a practitioner to act in
a representative capacity, to change a correspondence address, to
request a Customer Number, and to change the data associated with a
Customer Number. The USPTO's Customer Number practice permits
applicants, assignees, practitioners of record, and third party
requesters to change the correspondence address or representatives
of record for a number of applications, patents, or reexamination
proceedings with one change request instead of filing separate
requests for each application, patent, or reexamination proceeding.
The USPTO uses the information in this collection to determine who
is authorized to take action in an application, patent, or
reexamination proceeding and where to send correspondence regarding
an application, patent, or reexamination proceeding.
Program Changes Due to Agency
Discretion With this renewal the USPTO has removed three lines from
the information collection that dealt solely with change of address
provisions; including 130,065 responses, 6,502 burden hours and
$1,274 non-hourly cost burdens. The following items are considered
exempt from the PRA under 5 CFR 1320.3(h)(1) and removed from the
information collection: • Change of Correspondence
Address-Application; PTO/SB/122 • Change of Correspondence
Adress-Patent; PTO/SB/123 • Patent Owner Change of Correspondence
Address-Reexamintion Proceeding; PTO/SB/123A Changes in Responses
and Burden Hours due to Agency Estimate • For this renewal, the
USPTO estimates that the annual responses will decrease by 145,333
and the total burden hours will decrease by 8,340. These changes
are due to the expected volumes estimated by the USPTO based on
historical submission volumes. Changes in Annual (Non-hour) Costs
due to Agency Estimate For this renewal, the USPTO estimates that
the total annual (non-hour) costs will increase by $13,565 (from
$13,950.74 to $26,241), with the increase resulting from agency
adjustments due to: • The increase is due to the increased postage
rates associated with this information collection. The previous
postage rate was $0.49 in 2018 and is now estimated at $8.05.
However, the overall percentage of items being mailed continues to
decrease as the public increasingly adopts electronic
submission.
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.