Expedited Patent Appeal Pilot, 34145-34147 [2015-14754]
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Federal Register / Vol. 80, No. 114 / Monday, June 15, 2015 / Notices
Councils, Commissions, and state and
federal agencies.
The items of discussion in the pre
Data Workshop webinar are as follows:
1. Progress update from SEDAR 41
working groups.
2. Participants will present summary
data and discuss data needs and
treatments as necessary to prepare for
the SEDAR 41 Data Workshop II.
Although non-emergency issues not
contained in this agenda may come
before this group for discussion, those
issues may not be the subject of formal
action during this meeting. Action will
be restricted to those issues specifically
identified in this notice and any issues
arising after publication of this notice
that require emergency action under
section 305(c) of the Magnuson-Stevens
Fishery Conservation and Management
Act, provided the public has been
notified of the intent to take final action
to address the emergency.
Special Accommodations
This meeting is accessible to people
with disabilities. Requests for auxiliary
aids should be directed to the SEDAR
office (see ADDRESSES) at least 10
business days prior to the meeting.
Note: The times and sequence specified in
this agenda are subject to change.
Authority: 16 U.S.C. 1801 et seq.
Dated: June 10, 2015.
Tracey L. Thompson,
Acting Deputy Director, Office of Sustainable
Fisheries, National Marine Fisheries Service.
[FR Doc. 2015–14627 Filed 6–12–15; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3510–22–P
DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration
New England Fishery Management
Council; Public Meeting
National Marine Fisheries
Service (NMFS), National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration (NOAA),
Commerce.
ACTION: Notice; public meetings.
AGENCY:
The New England Fishery
Management Council (Council) is
scheduling a public meeting of its Joint
Observer and Herring Committees to
consider actions affecting New England
fisheries in the exclusive economic zone
(EEZ). Recommendations from these
groups will be brought to the full
Council for formal consideration and
action, if appropriate.
DATES: This meeting will be held on
Wednesday, July 1, 2015 at 9:30 a.m.
asabaliauskas on DSK5VPTVN1PROD with NOTICES
SUMMARY:
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ADDRESSES:
Meeting address: The meeting will be
held at the Four Points by Sheraton
(formerly Sheraton Colonial), 1
Audubon Road, Wakefield, MA 01880;
telephone: (781) 245–9300; fax: (781)
245–0842.
Council address: New England
Fishery Management Council, 50 Water
Street, Mill 2, Newburyport, MA 01950.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
34145
Dated: June 10, 2015.
Tracey L. Thompson,
Acting Deputy Director, Office of Sustainable
Fisheries, National Marine Fisheries Service.
[FR Doc. 2015–14628 Filed 6–12–15; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3510–22–P
DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
United States Patent and Trademark
Office
Thomas A. Nies, Executive Director,
New England Fishery Management
Council; telephone: (978) 465–0492.
[Docket No.: PTO–P–2015–0030]
The
committees plan to review and discuss
updated information and analyses for
the draft Environmental Assessment
(EA) for NMFS-led omnibus amendment
to establish provisions for industryfunded monitoring (IFM) across all
Council-managed fisheries. They will
also review and discuss the elements of
options for industry-funded monitoring
in the Atlantic herring fishery,
including at-sea monitoring, portside
sampling, and electronic monitoring
(EM); develop recommendations
regarding the specific combinations of
measures (‘‘packages’’) to be analyzed in
the Draft EA. Additionally, they will
review updated information related to
herring/mackerel economic analysis in
omnibus IFM amendment. The
committees will also discuss other
elements of IFM amendment and
develop related recommendations, as
appropriate. Other business will be
discussed as necessary.
Although non-emergency issues not
contained in this agenda may come
before these groups for discussion, those
issues may not be the subject of formal
action during these meetings. Action
will be restricted to those issues
specifically listed in this notice and any
issues arising after publication of this
notice that require emergency action
under section 305(c) of the MagnusonStevens Act, provided the public has
been notified of the Council’s intent to
take final action to address the
emergency.
AGENCY:
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Special Accommodations
This meeting is physically accessible
to people with disabilities. Requests for
sign language interpretation or other
auxiliary aids should be directed to
Thomas A. Nies, Executive Director, at
(978) 465–0492, at least 5 days prior to
the meeting date.
Authority: 16 U.S.C. 1801 et seq.
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Expedited Patent Appeal Pilot
United States Patent and
Trademark Office, Commerce.
ACTION: Notice.
The United States Patent and
Trademark Office (USPTO) has a
procedure under which an application
will be advanced out of turn (accorded
special status) for examination if the
applicant files a petition to make special
with the appropriate showing. The
USPTO is providing a temporary basis
(the Expedited Patent Appeal Pilot)
under which an appellant may have an
ex parte appeal to the Patent Trial and
Appeal Board (Board) accorded special
status if the appellant withdraws the
appeal in another application in which
an ex parte appeal is also pending
before the Board. The Expedited Patent
Appeal Pilot will allow appellants
having multiple ex parte appeals
currently pending before the Board to
have greater control over the priority
with which their appeals are decided
and reduce the backlog of appeals
pending before the Board.
DATES:
Effective Date: June 19, 2015.
Duration: The Expedited Patent
Appeal Pilot is being adopted on a
temporary basis and will run until two
thousand (2,000) appeals have been
accorded special status under the
Expedited Patent Appeal Pilot, or until
June 20, 2016, whichever occurs earlier.
The USPTO may extend the Expedited
Patent Appeal Pilot (with or without
modification) on either a temporary or
permanent basis, or may discontinue the
Expedited Patent Appeal Pilot after June
20, 2016, depending upon the results of
the Expedited Patent Appeal Pilot.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
Steven Bartlett, Patent Trial and Appeal
Board, by telephone at 571–272–9797,
or by electronic mail message at
expeditedpatentappealspilot@uspto.gov.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Appeals to
the Board are normally taken up for
decision by the Board in the order in
which they are docketed. The USPTO
SUMMARY:
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34146
Federal Register / Vol. 80, No. 114 / Monday, June 15, 2015 / Notices
has a preexisting procedure under
which an application will be advanced
out of turn (accorded special status) if
the applicant files a petition to make
special with the appropriate showing.
See 37 CFR 1.102 and MPEP § 708.02.
The USPTO is adopting, on a temporary
basis, the Expedited Patent Appeal
Pilot, under which an appellant may
have an ex parte appeal to the Board in
an application accorded special status if
the appellant withdraws the appeal in
another application or ex parte
reexamination with an ex parte appeal
also pending before the Board. The
Expedited Patent Appeal Pilot will
permit an appellant having multiple
appeals pending before the Board to
accelerate the Board decision on an
appeal involving an invention of greater
importance to the appellant, possibly
hastening the pace at which the
invention is patented and products or
services embodying the patent are
brought to the marketplace, and thus
spurring follow-on innovation,
economic growth, and job creation, by
foregoing another pending appeal in
which the underlying invention is no
longer a business pursuit or priority to
the appellant.
The USPTO will accord special status
to an appeal pending before the Board
under the following conditions:
(1) A certification and petition under
37 CFR 41.3 must be filed by the
USPTO’s electronic filing system (EFSWeb) in the application involved in the
ex parte appeal for which special status
is sought (‘‘appeal to be made special’’),
identifying that application and appeal
by application and appeal number,
respectively. In addition, the appeal to
be made special must be an appeal for
which a docketing notice was mailed no
later than June 19, 2015. Moreover,
there must be no request for an oral
hearing, or any request for an oral
hearing must be withdrawn, for the
appeal to be made special, and the
appellant must agree not to request a
refund of any oral hearing fees paid
with respect to the appeal to be made
special.
(2) The petition under 37 CFR 41.3
must include a request to withdraw the
appeal in another application or ex
parte reexamination for which a
docketing notice was mailed no later
than June 19, 2015 (‘‘appeal to be
withdrawn’’), identifying that
application or ex parte reexamination
and appeal by application or
reexamination control number and
appeal number, respectively. The
petition under 37 CFR 41.3 must be
filed before the appeal to be withdrawn
has been taken up for decision. The
appellant also must agree not to request
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a refund of any appeal fees, including
oral hearing fees, paid with respect to
the appeal to be withdrawn.
(3) The application involved in the
appeal to be made special and the
application or patent under
reexamination involved in the appeal to
be withdrawn must be either owned by
the same party as of June 19, 2015, or
name at least one inventor in common.
(4) The petition under 37 CFR 41.3
must be signed by a registered
practitioner who has a power of attorney
under 37 CFR 1.32, or has authority to
act under 37 CFR 1.34, for the
application involved in the appeal to be
made special and for the application or
patent under reexamination involved in
the appeal to be withdrawn.
The USPTO has created a formfillable Portable Document Format
(PDF) ‘‘Petition to Make Special—
Expedited Patent Appeal Pilot’’ (Form
PTO/SB/438) for use in filing a
certification and petition under 37 CFR
41.3 under the Expedited Patent Appeal
Pilot. Form PTO/SB/438 is available on
the USPTO’s Internet Web site on the
micro site for USPTO patent-related
forms (https://www.uspto.gov/patent/
patents-forms). Form PTO/SB/438 does
not collect ‘‘information’’ within the
meaning of the Paperwork Reduction
Act of 1995 (44 U.S.C. 3501 et seq.). See
5 CFR 1320.3(h). Therefore, this notice
does not involve information collection
requirements which are subject to
review by OMB.
No petition fee is required. The
$400.00 fee for a petition under 37 CFR
41.3 is hereby sua sponte waived for
any petition to make an appeal special
under the Expedited Patent Appeal
Pilot.
The withdrawal of an appeal in an
application or ex parte reexamination
may not form the basis for more than
one petition to make special under the
Expedited Patent Appeal Pilot,
including a petition to make special for
a subsequent appeal in the application
for which a petition to make an appeal
special was granted, or any continuing
application of the application for which
a petition to make an appeal special was
granted.
MPEP § 1203 provides that an
application made special and advanced
out of turn for examination will
continue to be special throughout its
entire course of prosecution in the
Office, including appeal, if any, to the
Board. An appeal that is accorded
special status for decision on an appeal
to the Board under the Expedited Patent
Appeal Pilot will be advanced similarly
out of turn for a decision on the appeal
by the Board. The difference between
the Expedited Patent Appeal Pilot and
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Sfmt 4703
an application made special under 37
CFR 1.102 and MPEP § 708.02 is that an
application in which an appeal is
accorded special status for decision on
an appeal to the Board under the
Expedited Patent Appeal Pilot will not
have a special status under CFR 1.102
and MPEP § 708.02 after the decision on
the appeal.
The goal for handling an application
in which a petition to make an appeal
special under the Expedited Patent
Appeal Pilot is filed is as follows: (1)
Rendering a decision on the petition to
make the appeal special no later than
two (2) months from the filing date of
the petition; and (2) rendering a
decision on the appeal no later than four
(4) months from the date a petition to
make an appeal special under the
Expedited Patent Appeal Pilot is
granted. The current pendency of
decided appeals in applications, for
those appeals decided this fiscal year,
ranges between an average of 24.7
months for appeals from applications
assigned to Technology Center 1700 and
an average of 32.5 months for appeals
from applications assigned to
Technology Center 1600, and is shown
for each Technology Center in the
following table:
Technology
Center
1600
1700
2100
2400
2600
2800
2900
3600
3700
................................
................................
................................
................................
................................
................................
................................
................................
................................
Average months
from docketing
notice to
board decision
32.5
24.7
32.0
32.0
31.7
26.9
26.1
31.7
29.9
Ex parte reexamination proceedings,
including any appeal to the Board, are
conducted with special dispatch within
the USPTO. See 35 U.S.C. 305. The
current average pendency of appeals in
ex parte reexaminations, for those
appeals decided this fiscal year, is 5.7
months. The USPTO is not making the
Expedited Patent Appeal Pilot
applicable to appeals in ex parte
reexaminations as these appeals already
are handled with special dispatch, and
the petition evaluation process would
only delay the Board decision in an
appeal in an ex parte reexamination.
The process for handling an
application in which an appeal is
withdrawn is set forth in MPEP § 1215.
Appellants should specifically note that
an application having no allowed claims
becomes abandoned upon withdrawal of
an appeal, and that claims indicated as
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allowable but for their dependency from
rejected claims are not considered
allowed claims but are treated as
rejected claims. See MPEP § 1215.01.
The filing of a request for continued
examination under 37 CFR 1.114 in an
application on appeal to the Board is
treated as a request to withdraw the
appeal and to reopen prosecution of the
application before the examiner. See 37
CFR 1.114(d). A request for continued
examination may be filed with a
petition under 37 CFR 41.3, and the
withdrawal of an appeal in that
application resulting from the filing of
such a request for continued
examination may form the basis for a
petition to make special based upon the
Expedited Patent Appeal Pilot. The
withdrawal of an appeal resulting from
the filing of a request for continued
examination prior to the filing of a
petition under 37 CFR 41.3, however,
may not form the basis for a petition to
make special based upon the Expedited
Patent Appeal Pilot.
As discussed previously, an
application having no allowed claims
becomes abandoned upon withdrawal of
an appeal. Any request for continued
examination, however, must be filed
prior to the abandonment of the
application. See 37 CFR 1.114(a)(2).
Thus, an appellant wishing to file a
request for continued examination in an
application in which there is an appeal
to be withdrawn under the Expedited
Patent Appeal Pilot must, if there are no
allowed claims, file the request for
continued examination with the petition
under 37 CFR 41.3 to ensure that the
request for continued examination is
filed prior to the abandonment of the
application that will result from the
dismissal of the appeal.
A request for continued examination
must include a submission. See 37 CFR
1.114(a) and (c). An appeal brief, or a
reply brief, or related papers, are not
considered a submission under 37 CFR
1.114. See 37 CFR 1.114(c). The
submission, however, may consist of the
arguments in a previously filed appeal
brief or reply brief, or may simply
consist of a statement that incorporates
by reference the arguments in a
previously filed appeal brief or reply
brief. See MPEP § 706.07(h).
The Expedited Patent Appeal Pilot is
being adopted on a temporary basis
until two thousand (2,000) appeals have
been accorded special status under the
Expedited Patent Appeal Pilot, or until
June 20, 2016, whichever occurs earlier.
The USPTO may extend the Expedited
Patent Appeal Pilot (with or without
modification) on either a temporary or
permanent basis, or may discontinue the
Expedited Patent Appeal Pilot after June
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16:39 Jun 12, 2015
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20, 2016, depending upon the results of
the Expedited Patent Appeal Pilot.
Additional information concerning the
Expedited Patent Appeal Pilot,
including statistical information
concerning the Expedited Patent Appeal
Pilot and pendency of appeals before
the Board, can found on the USPTO
Internet Web site at: https://wwwcms.uspto.gov/patents-applicationprocess/patent-trial-and-appeal-board/
expedited-patent-appeal-pilot.
Dated: June 10, 2015.
Michelle K. Lee,
Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual
Property and Director of the United States
Patent and Trademark Office.
[FR Doc. 2015–14754 Filed 6–12–15; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3510–16–P
BUREAU OF CONSUMER FINANCIAL
PROTECTION
[Docket No: CFPB–2015–0023]
Agency Information Collection
Activities: Comment Request
Bureau of Consumer Financial
Protection.
ACTION: Notice and request for comment.
AGENCY:
In accordance with the
Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995
(PRA), the Consumer Financial
Protection Bureau (Bureau) is requesting
new OMB control number information
for a collection of information, titled,
‘‘Regulation F: Fair Debt Collection
Practices Act.’’
DATES: Written comments are
encouraged and must be received on or
before August 14, 2015 to be assured of
consideration.
ADDRESSES: You may submit comments,
identified by the title of the information
collection, OMB Control Number (see
below), and docket number (see above),
by any of the following methods:
• Electronic: https://
www.regulations.gov. Follow the
instructions for submitting comments.
• Mail: Consumer Financial
Protection Bureau (Attention: PRA
Office), 1700 G Street NW., Washington,
DC 20552.
• Hand Delivery/Courier: Consumer
Financial Protection Bureau (Attention:
PRA Office), 1275 First Street NE.,
Washington, DC 20002.
Please note that comments submitted
after the comment period will not be
accepted. In general, all comments
received will become public records,
including any personal information
provided. Sensitive personal
information, such as account numbers
SUMMARY:
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34147
or social security numbers, should not
be included.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
Documentation prepared in support of
this information collection request is
available at www.regulations.gov.
Requests for additional information
should be directed to the Consumer
Financial Protection Bureau, (Attention:
PRA Office), 1700 G Street NW.,
Washington, DC 20552, (202) 435–9575,
or email: PRA@cfpb.gov. Please do not
submit comments to this mailbox.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Title of Collection: Regulation F: Fair
Debt Collection Practices Act.
OMB Control Number: 3170–XXXX.
Type of Review: Request for a new
OMB Control Number.
Affected Public: State Governments.
Estimated Number of Respondents: 1.
Estimated Total Annual Burden
Hours: 2.
Abstract: Regulation F (12 CFR part
1006) establishes procedures and
criteria whereby states may apply to the
Bureau for an exemption of a class of
debt collection practices within the
applying state from the provisions of the
Fair Debt Collection Practices Act as
provided in section 817 of the Act, 15
U.S.C. 1692. The information collection
request will seek OMB approval for the
state application contained in 12 CFR
1006.2.
Request for Comments: Comments are
invited on: (a) Whether the collection of
information is necessary for the proper
performance of the functions of the
Bureau, including whether the
information will have practical utility;
(b) The accuracy of the Bureau’s
estimate of the burden of the collection
of information, including the validity of
the methods and the assumptions used;
(c) Ways to enhance the quality, utility,
and clarity of the information to be
collected; and (d) Ways to minimize the
burden of the collection of information
on respondents, including through the
use of automated collection techniques
or other forms of information
technology. Comments submitted in
response to this notice will be
summarized and/or included in the
request for Office of Management and
Budget (OMB) approval. All comments
will become a matter of public record.
Dated: June 10, 2015.
Ashwin Vasan,
Chief Information Officer, Bureau of
Consumer Financial Protection.
[FR Doc. 2015–14635 Filed 6–12–15; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4810–AM–P
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]]>Agencies
[Federal Register Volume 80, Number 114 (Monday, June 15, 2015)]
[Notices]
[Pages 34145-34147]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2015-14754]
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
United States Patent and Trademark Office
[Docket No.: PTO-P-2015-0030]
Expedited Patent Appeal Pilot
AGENCY: United States Patent and Trademark Office, Commerce.
ACTION: Notice.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
SUMMARY: The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has a
procedure under which an application will be advanced out of turn
(accorded special status) for examination if the applicant files a
petition to make special with the appropriate showing. The USPTO is
providing a temporary basis (the Expedited Patent Appeal Pilot) under
which an appellant may have an ex parte appeal to the Patent Trial and
Appeal Board (Board) accorded special status if the appellant withdraws
the appeal in another application in which an ex parte appeal is also
pending before the Board. The Expedited Patent Appeal Pilot will allow
appellants having multiple ex parte appeals currently pending before
the Board to have greater control over the priority with which their
appeals are decided and reduce the backlog of appeals pending before
the Board.
DATES:
Effective Date: June 19, 2015.
Duration: The Expedited Patent Appeal Pilot is being adopted on a
temporary basis and will run until two thousand (2,000) appeals have
been accorded special status under the Expedited Patent Appeal Pilot,
or until June 20, 2016, whichever occurs earlier. The USPTO may extend
the Expedited Patent Appeal Pilot (with or without modification) on
either a temporary or permanent basis, or may discontinue the Expedited
Patent Appeal Pilot after June 20, 2016, depending upon the results of
the Expedited Patent Appeal Pilot.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Steven Bartlett, Patent Trial and
Appeal Board, by telephone at 571-272-9797, or by electronic mail
message at expeditedpatentappealspilot@uspto.gov.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Appeals to the Board are normally taken up
for decision by the Board in the order in which they are docketed. The
USPTO
[[Page 34146]]
has a preexisting procedure under which an application will be advanced
out of turn (accorded special status) if the applicant files a petition
to make special with the appropriate showing. See 37 CFR 1.102 and MPEP
Sec. 708.02. The USPTO is adopting, on a temporary basis, the
Expedited Patent Appeal Pilot, under which an appellant may have an ex
parte appeal to the Board in an application accorded special status if
the appellant withdraws the appeal in another application or ex parte
reexamination with an ex parte appeal also pending before the Board.
The Expedited Patent Appeal Pilot will permit an appellant having
multiple appeals pending before the Board to accelerate the Board
decision on an appeal involving an invention of greater importance to
the appellant, possibly hastening the pace at which the invention is
patented and products or services embodying the patent are brought to
the marketplace, and thus spurring follow-on innovation, economic
growth, and job creation, by foregoing another pending appeal in which
the underlying invention is no longer a business pursuit or priority to
the appellant.
The USPTO will accord special status to an appeal pending before
the Board under the following conditions:
(1) A certification and petition under 37 CFR 41.3 must be filed by
the USPTO's electronic filing system (EFS-Web) in the application
involved in the ex parte appeal for which special status is sought
(``appeal to be made special''), identifying that application and
appeal by application and appeal number, respectively. In addition, the
appeal to be made special must be an appeal for which a docketing
notice was mailed no later than June 19, 2015. Moreover, there must be
no request for an oral hearing, or any request for an oral hearing must
be withdrawn, for the appeal to be made special, and the appellant must
agree not to request a refund of any oral hearing fees paid with
respect to the appeal to be made special.
(2) The petition under 37 CFR 41.3 must include a request to
withdraw the appeal in another application or ex parte reexamination
for which a docketing notice was mailed no later than June 19, 2015
(``appeal to be withdrawn''), identifying that application or ex parte
reexamination and appeal by application or reexamination control number
and appeal number, respectively. The petition under 37 CFR 41.3 must be
filed before the appeal to be withdrawn has been taken up for decision.
The appellant also must agree not to request a refund of any appeal
fees, including oral hearing fees, paid with respect to the appeal to
be withdrawn.
(3) The application involved in the appeal to be made special and
the application or patent under reexamination involved in the appeal to
be withdrawn must be either owned by the same party as of June 19,
2015, or name at least one inventor in common.
(4) The petition under 37 CFR 41.3 must be signed by a registered
practitioner who has a power of attorney under 37 CFR 1.32, or has
authority to act under 37 CFR 1.34, for the application involved in the
appeal to be made special and for the application or patent under
reexamination involved in the appeal to be withdrawn.
The USPTO has created a form-fillable Portable Document Format
(PDF) ``Petition to Make Special--Expedited Patent Appeal Pilot'' (Form
PTO/SB/438) for use in filing a certification and petition under 37 CFR
41.3 under the Expedited Patent Appeal Pilot. Form PTO/SB/438 is
available on the USPTO's Internet Web site on the micro site for USPTO
patent-related forms (https://www.uspto.gov/patent/patents-forms). Form
PTO/SB/438 does not collect ``information'' within the meaning of the
Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (44 U.S.C. 3501 et seq.). See 5 CFR
1320.3(h). Therefore, this notice does not involve information
collection requirements which are subject to review by OMB.
No petition fee is required. The $400.00 fee for a petition under
37 CFR 41.3 is hereby sua sponte waived for any petition to make an
appeal special under the Expedited Patent Appeal Pilot.
The withdrawal of an appeal in an application or ex parte
reexamination may not form the basis for more than one petition to make
special under the Expedited Patent Appeal Pilot, including a petition
to make special for a subsequent appeal in the application for which a
petition to make an appeal special was granted, or any continuing
application of the application for which a petition to make an appeal
special was granted.
MPEP Sec. 1203 provides that an application made special and
advanced out of turn for examination will continue to be special
throughout its entire course of prosecution in the Office, including
appeal, if any, to the Board. An appeal that is accorded special status
for decision on an appeal to the Board under the Expedited Patent
Appeal Pilot will be advanced similarly out of turn for a decision on
the appeal by the Board. The difference between the Expedited Patent
Appeal Pilot and an application made special under 37 CFR 1.102 and
MPEP Sec. 708.02 is that an application in which an appeal is accorded
special status for decision on an appeal to the Board under the
Expedited Patent Appeal Pilot will not have a special status under CFR
1.102 and MPEP Sec. 708.02 after the decision on the appeal.
The goal for handling an application in which a petition to make an
appeal special under the Expedited Patent Appeal Pilot is filed is as
follows: (1) Rendering a decision on the petition to make the appeal
special no later than two (2) months from the filing date of the
petition; and (2) rendering a decision on the appeal no later than four
(4) months from the date a petition to make an appeal special under the
Expedited Patent Appeal Pilot is granted. The current pendency of
decided appeals in applications, for those appeals decided this fiscal
year, ranges between an average of 24.7 months for appeals from
applications assigned to Technology Center 1700 and an average of 32.5
months for appeals from applications assigned to Technology Center
1600, and is shown for each Technology Center in the following table:
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Average months
from docketing
Technology Center notice to board
decision
------------------------------------------------------------------------
1600................................................. 32.5
1700................................................. 24.7
2100................................................. 32.0
2400................................................. 32.0
2600................................................. 31.7
2800................................................. 26.9
2900................................................. 26.1
3600................................................. 31.7
3700................................................. 29.9
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ex parte reexamination proceedings, including any appeal to the
Board, are conducted with special dispatch within the USPTO. See 35
U.S.C. 305. The current average pendency of appeals in ex parte
reexaminations, for those appeals decided this fiscal year, is 5.7
months. The USPTO is not making the Expedited Patent Appeal Pilot
applicable to appeals in ex parte reexaminations as these appeals
already are handled with special dispatch, and the petition evaluation
process would only delay the Board decision in an appeal in an ex parte
reexamination.
The process for handling an application in which an appeal is
withdrawn is set forth in MPEP Sec. 1215. Appellants should
specifically note that an application having no allowed claims becomes
abandoned upon withdrawal of an appeal, and that claims indicated as
[[Page 34147]]
allowable but for their dependency from rejected claims are not
considered allowed claims but are treated as rejected claims. See MPEP
Sec. 1215.01.
The filing of a request for continued examination under 37 CFR
1.114 in an application on appeal to the Board is treated as a request
to withdraw the appeal and to reopen prosecution of the application
before the examiner. See 37 CFR 1.114(d). A request for continued
examination may be filed with a petition under 37 CFR 41.3, and the
withdrawal of an appeal in that application resulting from the filing
of such a request for continued examination may form the basis for a
petition to make special based upon the Expedited Patent Appeal Pilot.
The withdrawal of an appeal resulting from the filing of a request for
continued examination prior to the filing of a petition under 37 CFR
41.3, however, may not form the basis for a petition to make special
based upon the Expedited Patent Appeal Pilot.
As discussed previously, an application having no allowed claims
becomes abandoned upon withdrawal of an appeal. Any request for
continued examination, however, must be filed prior to the abandonment
of the application. See 37 CFR 1.114(a)(2). Thus, an appellant wishing
to file a request for continued examination in an application in which
there is an appeal to be withdrawn under the Expedited Patent Appeal
Pilot must, if there are no allowed claims, file the request for
continued examination with the petition under 37 CFR 41.3 to ensure
that the request for continued examination is filed prior to the
abandonment of the application that will result from the dismissal of
the appeal.
A request for continued examination must include a submission. See
37 CFR 1.114(a) and (c). An appeal brief, or a reply brief, or related
papers, are not considered a submission under 37 CFR 1.114. See 37 CFR
1.114(c). The submission, however, may consist of the arguments in a
previously filed appeal brief or reply brief, or may simply consist of
a statement that incorporates by reference the arguments in a
previously filed appeal brief or reply brief. See MPEP Sec. 706.07(h).
The Expedited Patent Appeal Pilot is being adopted on a temporary
basis until two thousand (2,000) appeals have been accorded special
status under the Expedited Patent Appeal Pilot, or until June 20, 2016,
whichever occurs earlier. The USPTO may extend the Expedited Patent
Appeal Pilot (with or without modification) on either a temporary or
permanent basis, or may discontinue the Expedited Patent Appeal Pilot
after June 20, 2016, depending upon the results of the Expedited Patent
Appeal Pilot. Additional information concerning the Expedited Patent
Appeal Pilot, including statistical information concerning the
Expedited Patent Appeal Pilot and pendency of appeals before the Board,
can found on the USPTO Internet Web site at: https://www-cms.uspto.gov/patents-application-process/patent-trial-and-appeal-board/expedited-patent-appeal-pilot.
Dated: June 10, 2015.
Michelle K. Lee,
Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of
the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
[FR Doc. 2015-14754 Filed 6-12-15; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3510-16-P
