December 28, 2011 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The SEDAR assessments of the South Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico stocks of Spanish mackerel and cobia will consist of a series of workshops and webinars: a Data Workshop and webinar, an Assessment Workshop and webinars, and a Review Workshop. The data and assessment webinars will be announced in a separate notice. This is the twenty- eighth SEDAR.

The United States Patent and Trademark Office (Office) is proposing to revise the patent term adjustment provisions of the rules of practice in patent cases. The patent term adjustment provisions of the American Inventors Protection Act of 1999 (AIPA) provide for patent term adjustment if, inter alia, 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 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 the period of appellate review under the patent term adjustment provisions of the AIPA begins when jurisdiction over the application passes to the BPAI rather than the date on which a notice of appeal to the BPAI is filed. The Office recently published the final rule (eff. date Jan 23, 2012) concerning practice before the BPAI in ex parte appeals and defined that jurisdiction of the appeal passes to the BPAI at the earlier of the filing of the reply brief or upon the expiration of the time in which to file a reply brief. See Rules Of Practice Before the Board of Patent Appeals and Interferences in Ex Parte Appeals 76 FR 72270, 72273 (November 22, 2011). Accordingly, for purposes of calculating patent term adjustment based upon appellate review, the impact of the rule change would be to reduce the amount of patent term adjustment awarded for successful appeal under 35 USC 154(b)(1)(C)(iii). However, the impact may be offset by potentially increasing the amount of patent term adjustment awarded for failing to issue the patent within three years of the actual filing date in the United States under 35 USC 154(b)(1)(B). The patent term adjustment award for the three year provision may increase when the examiner reopens prosecution after a notice of appeal is filed (e.g., following a pre-appeal conference or an appeal conference) and the patent issues thereafter, because the period of time between the filing of the notice of appeal and the examiner's reopening of prosecution would no longer be deducted under 35 USC 154(b)(1)(B)(ii).

The Department of Defense is publishing this final rule to implement section 711 of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2009 (FY 2009), Public Law 110-417. Section 711 eliminates copayments for authorized preventive services for TRICARE Standard beneficiaries other than Medicare-eligible beneficiaries. This rule also realigns the covered preventive services listed in the Exclusions section of the regulation to the Special Benefits section in the regulation.

NCUA proposes to eliminate the Regulatory Flexibility Program (RegFlex) to provide regulatory relief to Federal credit unions. NCUA also proposes to remove or amend related rules to ease compliance burden while retaining certain safety and soundness standards. Those rules pertain to eligible obligations, charitable contributions, nonmember deposits, fixed assets, investments, and member business loans.

This document corrects typographical errors in the final regulations establishing a new voluntary cooperative program under which certain very small and small State-inspected establishments will be eligible to ship meat and poultry products in interstate commerce. The final rule was published in the Federal Register on May 2, 2011, and became effective on July 1, 2011.

EPA is partially approving and partially disapproving a revision to the Oklahoma State Implementation Plan (SIP) submitted by the State of Oklahoma through the Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality on February 19, 2010, intended to address the regional haze requirements of the Clean Air Act (CAA). In addition, EPA is partially approving and partially disapproving a portion of a revision to the Oklahoma SIP submitted by the State of Oklahoma on May 10, 2007 and supplemented on December 10, 2007 to address the requirements of CAA section 110(a)(2)(D)(i)(II) as it applies to visibility for the 1997 8- hour ozone and 1997 fine particulate matter National Ambient Air Quality Standards. This CAA requirement is intended to prevent emissions from one state from interfering with the visibility programs in another state. EPA is approving certain core elements of the SIP including Oklahoma's: determination of baseline and natural visibility conditions; coordinating regional haze and reasonably attributable visibility impairment; monitoring strategy and other implementation requirements; coordination with states and Federal Land Managers; and a number of NOX, SO2, and PM BART determinations. EPA is finding that Oklahoma's regional haze SIP did not address the sulfur dioxide Best Available Retrofit Technology requirements for six units in Oklahoma in accordance with the Regional Haze requirements, or the requirement to prevent interference with other states' visibility programs. EPA is promulgating a Federal Implementation Plan to address these deficiencies by requiring emissions to be reduced at these six units. This action is being taken under section 110 and part C of the CAA.