April 6, 2011 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The United States Patent and Trademark Office (Office) is proposing to revise the patent term adjustment and extension provisions of the rules of practice in patent cases. The patent term adjustment provisions of the American Inventors Protection Act of 1999 (AIPA) and the patent term extension provisions of the Uruguay Round Agreements Act (URAA) each provide for patent term extension or adjustment if the issuance of the patent was delayed due to appellate review by the Board of Patent Appeals and Interferences (BPAI) or by a Federal court and the patent was issued pursuant to or under a decision in the review reversing an adverse determination of patentability. The Office is proposing to change the rules of practice to indicate that in most circumstances an examiner reopening prosecution of the application after a notice of appeal has been filed will be considered a decision in the review reversing an adverse determination of patentability for purposes of patent term adjustment or extension purposes. Therefore, in such situations, patentees would be entitled to patent term extension or adjustment. In addition, the AIPA provides for a reduction of any patent term adjustment if the applicant failed to engage in reasonable efforts to conclude prosecution of the application. The Office is also proposing to change the rules of practice pertaining to the reduction of patent term adjustment for applicant delays to exclude information disclosure statements resulting from the citation of information by a foreign patent office in a counterpart application that are promptly filed with the Office. For example, under the proposed rule, there would not be a reduction of patent term adjustment in the following situations: When applicant promptly submits a reference in an information disclosure statement after the mailing of a notice of allowance if the reference was cited by the Office in another application, or when applicant promptly submits a copy of an Office communication (e.g., an Office action) in an information disclosure statement after the mailing of a notice of allowance if the Office communication was issued by the Office in another application or by a foreign patent office in a counterpart foreign application.

This notice announces receipt of and publishes a petition for waiver from DaikinAC (Americas) Inc. (Daikin). The petition for waiver (hereafter ``petition'') requests a waiver from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) test procedure applicable to commercial package air-source central air conditioners and heat pumps. The petition is specific to the Daikin variable capacity VRV III-PB variable refrigerant flow (VRF) commercial multi-split heat pumps (``VRV III-PB multi-split heat pumps''). Through this document, DOE: solicits comments, data, and information with respect to the Daikin petition; and announces the grant of an interim waiver to Daikin from the existing DOE test procedure for the subject commercial multi-split heat pumps.

In accordance with the Federal Advisory Committee Act, as amended (5 U.S.C. Appendix 2), the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) announces an agenda change for the Advisory Committee on the Electronic Records Archives (ACERA). The meeting has been consolidated into one day. This meeting will be open to the public. However, due to space limitations and access procedures, the name and telephone number of individuals planning to attend must be submitted to the Electronic Records Archives Program at era.program@nara.gov. This meeting will be recorded for transcription purposes.

Notice is hereby given that The University of California, Davis, Bodega Marine Laboratory, 2099 Westside Road, Bodega Bay, CA 94923 [Gary Cherr, Ph.D., Principal Investigator] has been issued a permit to take white abalone (Haliotis sorenseni) for purposes of scientific research and enhancement.

The Federal Maritime Commission (FMC or Commission) is seeking comments on possible amendments to its Rules of Practice and Procedure to update and clarify its rules, and to reduce the burden on parties to proceedings before the Commission.

We propose to adopt a new airworthiness directive (AD) for the products listed above that would supersede an existing AD. This proposed AD results from mandatory continuing airworthiness information (MCAI) originated by an aviation authority of another country to identify and correct an unsafe condition on an aviation product. The MCAI describes the unsafe condition as:

Under the provisions of Section 3507(a)(1)(D) of the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, the National Cancer Institute (NCI), the National Institutes of Health (NIH), has submitted to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) a request to review and approve the information collection listed below. This proposed information collection was previously published in the Federal Register on February 4, 2011 (76 FR 6485) and allowed 60 days for public comment. No public comments were received. The purpose of this notice is to allow an additional 30 days for public comment. The National Institutes of Health may not conduct or sponsor, and the respondent is not required to respond to, an information collection that has been extended, revised, or implemented on or after October 1, 1995, unless it displays a currently valid OMB control number. Proposed Collection: Title: Short Follow-Up Questionnaire for the National Institutes of Health (NIH)-AARP Diet and Health Study (NCI). Type of Information Collection Request: Extension. Need and Use of Information Collection: The purpose of this short 2-page questionnaire is to obtain information on 18 different medical conditions, several medical procedures, and lifestyle characteristics from 485,909 participants of the NIH-AARP Diet and Health Study. The questionnaire will support the ongoing examination between cancer and nutritional exposures. A pilot mailing to 1,600 randomly selected NIH-AARP Diet and Health study participants confirmed the feasibility of the methodology and willingness of respondents to participate in this data collection effort. This questionnaire adheres to The Public Health Service Act, Section 412 (42 U.S.C. 285a-1) and Section 413 (42 U.S.C. 285a-2), which authorizes the Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics of the National Cancer Institute (NCI) to establish and support programs for the detection, diagnosis, prevention and treatment of cancer; and to collect, identify, analyze and disseminate information on cancer research, diagnosis, prevention and treatment. Frequency of Response: Once. Affected Public: Individuals. Type of Respondents: U.S. adults (persons aged 50-85). The annual reporting burden is displayed in the table below. There are no Capital Costs, Operating Costs, and/or Maintenance Costs to report.

This regulation establishes tolerances for residues of hexythiazox in or on corn, sweet, kernel plus cob with husk removed; corn, sweet, forage; bean, dried; and bean, succulent. Gowan Company requested these tolerances under the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FFDCA).

EPA is proposing to issue both a site-specific treatment variance to U.S. Ecology Nevada (USEN) located in Beatty, Nevada and withdraw an existing site-specific treatment variance issued to Chemical Waste Management, Inc. (CWM) located in Kettleman Hills, California. This proposal pertains to the treatment of a hazardous waste generated by the Owens-Brockway Glass Container Company in Vernon, California that is unable to meet the concentration-based treatment standard for selenium established under the Land Disposal Restrictions program. The site-specific treatment variance proposed to be issued to USEN would provide an alternative treatment standard of 59 mg/L for selenium as measured by the Toxicity Characteristic Leaching Procedure. EPA has determined that the treatment performed by USEN provides the best demonstrated treatment available for this waste by reducing the amount of selenium potentially released to the environment, while minimizing the total volume of hazardous waste land disposed. In the ``Rules and Regulations'' section of this Federal Register, EPA has also published a direct final rule granting a site- specific treatment variance to USEN, and withdrawing the site-specific treatment variance previously granted to CWM for this same waste without a prior proposed rule. If we receive no adverse comment, we will not take further action on this proposed rule and the direct final rule will become effective as provided in that action.

Cargill Power Markets, LLC (CPM) has applied to renew its authority to transmit electric energy from the United States to Canada pursuant to section 202(e) of the Federal Power Act (FPA).

Pursuant to the Federal Advisory Committee Act, Public Law 92- 463, notice is hereby given that the Mobile Sources Technical Review Subcommittee (MSTRS) will meet in May 2011. The MSTRS is a subcommittee under the Clean Air Act Advisory Committee. This is an open meeting. The meeting will include discussion of current topics and presentations about activities being conducted by EPA's Office of Transportation and Air Quality. The preliminary agenda for the meeting and any notices about change in venue will be posted on the Subcommittee's Web site: https://www.epa.gov/air/caaac/mobile_sources.html. MSTRS listserver subscribers will receive notification when the agenda is available on the Subcommittee Web site. To subscribe to the MSTRS listserver, send a blank e-mail to lists-mstrs@lists.epa.gov.

The Department of Commerce preliminarily determines that countervailable subsidies are being provided to producers and exporters of multilayered wood flooring from the People's Republic of China. For information on the estimated subsidy rates, see the ``Suspension of Liquidation'' section of this notice.