Extension of, and New Combined Petition Option for Participation in, the Expanded Collaborative Search Pilot Program, 2892-2894 [2023-00799]
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<![CDATA[
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Federal Register / Vol. 88, No. 11 / Wednesday, January 18, 2023 / Notices
TABLE 2—SHUTDOWN AND HARASSMENT ZONES (METERS) FOR EACH METHOD
Removal method
13-inch polycarbonate pile .........................................................................
14-inch, 16-inch concreate piles ................................................................
14-inch, 16-inch concreate piles ................................................................
14-inch, 16-inch concreate piles ................................................................
14-inch, 16-inch concreate piles ................................................................
14-inch, 16-inch concreate piles ................................................................
One pile clipper ...............................
One pile clipper ...............................
Two pile clippers .............................
Underwater chainsaw ......................
Diamond wire saw ...........................
Vibratory hammer ............................
Comments and Responses
A notice of NMFS’ proposal to issue
a renewal IHA to the Navy was
published in the Federal Register on
December 22, 2022 (87 FR 78655). That
notice either described, or referenced
descriptions of, the Navy’s activity, the
marine mammal species that may be
affected by the activity, the anticipated
effects on marine mammals and their
habitat, estimated amount and manner
of take, and proposed mitigation,
monitoring and reporting measures.
NMFS received no public comments.
lotter on DSK11XQN23PROD with NOTICES1
Harassment
zone
Pile information
Determinations
The renewal request consists of
activities identical to those that are
covered by the initial authorization. The
methods of determining estimated take,
potential effects, and required
mitigation, monitoring and reporting
have not changed.
NMFS has defined negligible impact
as an impact resulting from the
specified activity that cannot be
reasonably expected to, and is not
reasonably likely to, adversely affect the
species or stock through effects on
annual rates of recruitment or survival
(50 CFR 216.103). We found that the
activities authorized under the initial
IHA would have a negligible impact and
that the taking would be small relative
to the population size.
NMFS has concluded that there is no
new information suggesting that our
analysis or findings should change from
those reached for the initial IHA. This
includes consideration of the estimated
abundance of common dolphin, Pacific
white-sided dolphin, and northern
elephant seal stocks increasing slightly
and the population estimate for longbeaked common dolphin decreasing
slightly. As such, our negligible impact
determination has not changed. Based
on the information and analysis
contained here and in the referenced
documents, NMFS has determined the
following: (1) the required mitigation
measures will effect the least practicable
impact on marine mammal species or
stocks and their habitat; (2) the
authorized takes will have a negligible
impact on the affected marine mammal
VerDate Sep<11>2014
17:41 Jan 17, 2023
Jkt 259001
species or stocks; (3) the authorized
takes represent small numbers of marine
mammals relative to the affected stock
abundances; (4) The Navy’s activities
will not have an unmitigable adverse
impact on taking for subsistence
purposes as no relevant subsistence uses
of marine mammals are implicated by
this action, and; (5) appropriate
monitoring and reporting requirements
are included.
National Environmental Policy Act
To comply with the National
Environmental Policy Act of 1969
(NEPA; 42 U.S.C. 4321 et seq.) and
NOAA Administrative Order (NAO)
216–6A, NMFS must review our
proposed action (i.e., the issuance of an
IHA renewal) with respect to potential
impacts on the human environment.
This action is consistent with
categories of activities identified in
Categorical Exclusion B4 (incidental
take authorizations with no anticipated
serious injury or mortality) of the
Companion Manual for NOAA
Administrative Order 216–6A, which do
not individually or cumulatively have
the potential for significant impacts on
the quality of the human environment
and for which we have not identified
any extraordinary circumstances that
would preclude this categorical
exclusion. Accordingly, NMFS
determined that the issuance of the
initial IHA qualified to be categorically
excluded from further NEPA review.
NMFS has determined that the
application of this categorical exclusion
remains appropriate for this renewal
IHA.
Endangered Species Act
Section 7(a)(2) of the Endangered
Species Act of 1973 (ESA: 16 U.S.C.
1531 et seq.) requires that each Federal
agency insure that any action it
authorizes, funds, or carries out is not
likely to jeopardize the continued
existence of any endangered or
threatened species or result in the
destruction or adverse modification of
designated critical habitat. To ensure
ESA compliance for the issuance of
IHAs, NMFS consults internally
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Shutdown
zone
423
250
250
229
575
311
20
whenever we propose to authorize take
for endangered or threatened species.
No incidental take of ESA-listed
species is authorized or expected to
result from this activity. Therefore,
NMFS has determined that formal
consultation under section 7 of the ESA
is not required for this action.
Renewal
NMFS has issued a renewal IHA to
the Navy for the take of marine
mammals incidental to conducting the
Fuel Pier Inboard Pile Removal Project
at Naval Base Point Loma in San Diego
Bay, California from January 15, 2023 to
January 14, 2024.
Dated: January 11, 2023.
Kimberly Damon-Randall,
Director, Office of Protected Resources,
National Marine Fisheries Service.
[FR Doc. 2023–00800 Filed 1–17–23; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3510–22–P
DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
Patent and Trademark Office
[Docket No.: PTO–P–2022–0001]
Extension of, and New Combined
Petition Option for Participation in, the
Expanded Collaborative Search Pilot
Program
United States Patent and
Trademark Office, Department of
Commerce.
ACTION: Notice.
AGENCY:
To speed up patent
examination and give applicants more
comprehensive prior art by combining
the search expertise of United States
Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO),
Japan Patent Office (JPO), and Korean
Intellectual Property Office (KIPO)
examiners before issuing a first Office
action, the USPTO, in partnership with
the JPO and the KIPO, is extending the
Expanded Collaborative Search Pilot
(CSP) program for an additional two
years, through October 31, 2024.
Requests to participate in the Expanded
CSP program that were filed between
SUMMARY:
E:\FR\FM\18JAN1.SGM
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Federal Register / Vol. 88, No. 11 / Wednesday, January 18, 2023 / Notices
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October 31, 2022, and January 18, 2023,
will be considered.
In addition, the partner intellectual
property (IP) offices have collaborated
on a new petition option for
participation in the Expanded CSP
program. The new petition option,
which has several enhancements
compared to the current petition form
and process, permits an applicant to file
a combined petition in either the
USPTO or one of the partner IP offices
rather than separate petitions in each
office. Enhancements include a more
user-friendly layout, the addition of
multilingual text, and a foundation for
data collection that both satisfies the
petition requirements and streamlines
the process for partaking in the
Expanded CSP program.
DATES: Pilot duration: The Expanded
CSP program will continue until
October 31, 2024. Each partner IP office
will continue to grant no more than 400
requests per year per partner office for
the duration of the pilot.
New petition option applicability
date: The combined petition option and
the related process will take effect on
January 18, 2023.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: You
may direct inquiries regarding any
specific application participating in the
pilot to Jessica Patterson; Senior
Advisor and Director; International
Worksharing, Planning, and
Implementation; Office of International
Patent Cooperation; at 571–272–8828 or
Jessica.Patterson@uspto.gov. You may
email any inquiry regarding this pilot
program and the petition process to
csp@uspto.gov. You may direct
inquiries concerning this notice to
Michael Arguello; Management and
Program Analyst; International
Worksharing, Planning, and
Implementation; Office of International
Patent Cooperation; at 571–270–7876 or
Michael.Arguello@uspto.gov.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
I. Background
The USPTO continually looks for
ways to improve its worksharing pilot
programs, including the Expanded CSP
program. The Expanded CSP program
provides applicants who cross-file with
the USPTO and the JPO or the KIPO
with search results from each partner IP
office early in the examination process.
It is designed to accelerate examination
and provide the applicant with more
comprehensive prior art by combining
the search expertise of the USPTO and
the JPO or the KIPO examiners before
issuing a first Office action. For
additional details about this program,
see Expanded Collaborative Search Pilot
VerDate Sep<11>2014
17:41 Jan 17, 2023
Jkt 259001
Program Extension, 86 FR 8183
(February 4, 2021) (Expanded CSP
extension notice). Feedback from
applicants based in the United States,
Korea, and Japan has cited the petition
process as an area for improvement,
specifically the requirement to petition
each partner IP office separately. As a
result, the USPTO collaborated with its
partner IP offices, the JPO and the KIPO,
to develop combined petition forms
(PTO/437–JP for the USPTO/JPO pilot
program and PTO/437–KR for the
USPTO/KIPO pilot program).
Submitting a completed combined
petition form to either the USPTO or the
partner IP office (the JPO or the KIPO)
will result in receipt of the form at both
offices in the corresponding pilot
program and placement in the
application files of both counterpart
applications.
The current petition option and
process, in which an applicant files a
separate petition or a request with each
partner IP office (original petition
option), remains available. Under the
original petition option, an applicant
must submit petition form PTO/SB/437
(without the JP or KR designation) to the
USPTO to request CSP participation for
the U.S. application and must make a
separate submission to the partner IP
office in the desired pilot to request CSP
participation for a counterpart
application.
II. Overview of the Combined Petition
Option
Applicants need only submit one
combined petition form to the USPTO
or the partner IP office (the JPO or the
KIPO). There are separate agreements
between the USPTO and the JPO and
the USPTO and the KIPO. Therefore, to
request participation in the
corresponding pilot program between
the USPTO and the JPO using this
combined petition option, applicants
must file the combined petition form
PTO/437–JP with either the USPTO or
the JPO. Likewise, to request
participation in the corresponding pilot
program between the USPTO and the
KIPO using this combined petition
option, applicants must file the
combined petition form PTO/437–KR
with either the USPTO or the KIPO.
However, if an application corresponds
to more than one application in a
partner IP office, the combined petition
option cannot be used. In this situation,
an applicant must use the original
petition option (form PTO/SB/437,
without the JP or KR designation) to
request participation in the Expanded
CSP program.
Under the combined petition option,
use of the proper combined petition
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Fmt 4703
Sfmt 4703
2893
form will assist applicants in complying
with the pilot program’s requirements
and will assist the USPTO in quickly
identifying participating applications
and their corresponding partner IP
office. The combined petition forms for
the USPTO/JPO pilot program and the
USPTO/KIPO pilot program are
multilingual. Both combined petition
forms provide links to the requirements
(with exceptions noted in section VI
below) and conditions for entry into the
respective pilot program for each
partner IP office. As each partner IP
office’s conditions for entry may differ,
applicants should review the
requirements of the relevant partner IP
offices to ensure compliance.
Forms PTO/437–JP and PTO/437–KR
are available as Portable Document
Format (PDF) fillable forms at the
USPTO’s CSP website at
www.uspto.gov/CollaborativeSearch.
The forms can also be accessed at the
USPTO website at www.uspto.gov/
PatentForms. The Office of Management
and Budget (OMB) has reviewed and
approved the collection of information
involved in this pilot program, under
the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995
(44 U.S.C. 3501 et seq.), as part of a
collection identified by OMB control
number 0651–0079. Collection 0651–
0079 is available at OMB’s Information
Collection Review website,
www.reginfo.gov/public/do/PRAMain.
No fee for the combined petition to
make special under 37 CFR 1.102 is
required for participation in the
Expanded CSP program.
III. Filing a Combined Petition Form
If opting to use a combined petition
form, applicants must file a completed
combined petition form (PTO/437–JP or
PTO/437–KR) for each pilot program in
which the applicant wishes to
participate.
Combined petition form PTO/437–JP
must either be directly filed in the U.S.
application or directly with the JPO for
the USPTO/JPO pilot program, and
combined petition form PTO/437–KR
must either be directly filed in the U.S.
application or directly with the KIPO for
the USPTO/KIPO pilot program. If the
combined petition form is directly filed
in the U.S. application, the applicant
must file it using either USPTO filing
system(s) or Patent Center. If the
applicant directly files the combined
petition form with the partner IP office,
the combined petition form must be
accompanied by supporting documents
(e.g., an English translation of the claims
of the application filed in the partner IP
office; a machine translation of the
claims is acceptable). The
corresponding partner IP office will
E:\FR\FM\18JAN1.SGM
18JAN1
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2894
Federal Register / Vol. 88, No. 11 / Wednesday, January 18, 2023 / Notices
then transmit the combined petition
form and supporting documents to the
USPTO. The applicant should not file
the combined petition form directly
with both the USPTO and the
corresponding partner IP office.
Based on the agreements between the
USPTO and the partner IP offices, if the
applicant directly files the combined
petition form with the USPTO, then the
USPTO must transmit the completed
form and any accompanying supporting
documents, along with the date of
receipt, to the corresponding partner IP
office. Additionally, if the applicant
files the combined petition form directly
with the JPO or the KIPO, then the
partner IP office that receives the filing
must transmit the form and the
accompanying supporting documents,
along with its date of receipt, to the
USPTO. The USPTO will then place the
combined petition form and the
accompanying supporting documents in
the file of the U.S. application.
Incomplete combined petition forms
will not be forwarded to the
corresponding partner IP office and will
be dismissed in accordance with the
Memorandums of Cooperation between
the USPTO and the respective partner IP
offices.
Under the combined petition option,
the partner IP offices have agreed to
transmit the combined petition form to
the corresponding partner IP office
within 15 days of receipt from the
applicant. This reduces the risk of the
counterpart application being acted
upon by an examiner in the partner IP
office before that application enters the
pilot program, which would result in
both applications being denied entry
into the Expanded CSP program. The
request for participation in the
Expanded CSP program must be granted
by both the IP office in which the
request is directly filed and the partner
IP office prior to any examination of the
counterpart applications in either office.
To the extent that the combined
petition form forwarded to the USPTO
from a partner IP office does not comply
with the requirements of 37 CFR
1.4(d)(2) and (d)(3), and 1.6(a), these
requirements are waived for certain
elements. Specifically, with respect to
37 CFR 1.4(d)(2), a forwarded combined
petition form containing an S-signature
will not be required to be filed by
facsimile transmission, via the USPTO
patent electronic filing system (i.e.,
USPTO filing system(s) or Patent
Center), or on paper. With respect to 37
CFR 1.4(d)(3), a forwarded combined
petition form containing a graphic
representation of a handwritten
signature or an S-signature will not be
required to be filed via the USPTO
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17:41 Jan 17, 2023
Jkt 259001
patent electronic filing system. With
respect to 37 CFR 1.6(a), a forwarded
combined petition form will be
accorded a receipt date even though it
was not received at the USPTO by mail,
filed via the USPTO patent electronic
filing system, or hand-delivered to the
USPTO. The U.S. receipt date of the
combined petition form will either be
the actual date that the combined
petition form is received at the USPTO
via the USPTO patent electronic filing
system or the date the combined
petition form is transmitted to the
USPTO from the partner IP office,
which may not be the same as the
receipt date in the partner IP office.
IV. Requirements for Participation in
the Expanded CSP
To be accepted into the Expanded
CSP program, applicants who use the
combined petition option must meet all
the requirements of the pilot program
that are set forth in section III of the
Expanded CSP extension notice, except
with the following modifications.
Under the combined petition option,
the combined petition form PTO/437–JP
or PTO/437–KR must be used instead of
form PTO/SB/437, and the combined
petition form, as discussed above, must
be submitted to either the USPTO or the
partner IP office (the JPO or the KIPO).
Separate petitions are not required to be
filed in both the USPTO and the partner
IP office. The combined petition form
PTO/437–JP or PTO/437–KR also
includes an express written consent
under 35 U.S.C. 122(c) for the USPTO
to receive the combined petition form (if
filed directly with the corresponding
partner IP office) and to accept and
consider prior art references and
comments from the designated partner
IP office during the examination of the
U.S. application. In addition, the
combined petition form includes
written authorization for the USPTO to
forward the form (if filed directly with
the USPTO) to the corresponding
partner IP office and to provide to the
designated partner IP office, before a
first Office action on the merits, access
to the participating U.S. application’s
bibliographic data and search results, in
accordance with 35 U.S.C. 122(a) and 37
CFR 1.14(c). No other consents are
required.
V. Treatment of a Combined Petition
Form
The combined petition form filed
directly or indirectly in the U.S.
application will be treated in the
manner set forth in section IV of the
Expanded CSP extension notice.
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Fmt 4703
Sfmt 4703
VI. Requirement for Restriction
The requirement for restriction set
forth in section V of the Expanded CSP
extension notice remains the same for
the combined petition option.
VII. First Action on the Merits
Under the Expanded CSP program,
the USPTO examiner will consider all
exchanged search results. However,
search results that are not received by
the USPTO within four months from the
date the USPTO granted the petition
may not be included in the first action
on the merits (FAOM). The examiner
will prepare and issue an Office action
and notify the applicant if any
designated partner IP office did not
provide search results prior to the
issuance of the Office action. Once an
FAOM issues, the application will no
longer be treated as special under the
Expanded CSP program.
The USPTO will continue to
cooperate with applicants, IP
stakeholders, and partner IP offices to
improve the CSP process. More
information on the CSP is available at
www.uspto.gov/CollaborativeSearch.
Katherine K. Vidal,
Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual
Property and Director of the United States
Patent and Trademark Office.
[FR Doc. 2023–00799 Filed 1–17–23; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3510–16–P
COMMODITY FUTURES TRADING
COMMISSION
Global Markets Advisory Committee
Commodity Futures Trading
Commission.
ACTION: Notice of meeting.
AGENCY:
The Commodity Futures
Trading Commission (CFTC) announces
that on February 13, 2023, from
approximately 9:30 a.m. to 3 p.m.
(Eastern Standard Time, or EST), the
Global Markets Advisory Committee
(GMAC or Committee) will hold an inperson public meeting at the CFTC’s
Washington, DC headquarters with
options for the public to attend
virtually. At this meeting, the GMAC
will discuss the Committee’s structure;
formation of subcommittees; and
potential topics for the GMAC to
prioritize in making policy
recommendations to the CFTC on issues
that affect the integrity and
competitiveness of U.S. markets and
U.S. firms engaged in global business,
including the regulatory challenges of
global markets that reflect the increasing
interconnectedness of markets and the
SUMMARY:
E:\FR\FM\18JAN1.SGM
18JAN1
]]>Agencies
[Federal Register Volume 88, Number 11 (Wednesday, January 18, 2023)]
[Notices]
[Pages 2892-2894]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2023-00799]
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
Patent and Trademark Office
[Docket No.: PTO-P-2022-0001]
Extension of, and New Combined Petition Option for Participation
in, the Expanded Collaborative Search Pilot Program
AGENCY: United States Patent and Trademark Office, Department of
Commerce.
ACTION: Notice.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
SUMMARY: To speed up patent examination and give applicants more
comprehensive prior art by combining the search expertise of United
States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), Japan Patent Office (JPO),
and Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO) examiners before issuing
a first Office action, the USPTO, in partnership with the JPO and the
KIPO, is extending the Expanded Collaborative Search Pilot (CSP)
program for an additional two years, through October 31, 2024. Requests
to participate in the Expanded CSP program that were filed between
[[Page 2893]]
October 31, 2022, and January 18, 2023, will be considered.
In addition, the partner intellectual property (IP) offices have
collaborated on a new petition option for participation in the Expanded
CSP program. The new petition option, which has several enhancements
compared to the current petition form and process, permits an applicant
to file a combined petition in either the USPTO or one of the partner
IP offices rather than separate petitions in each office. Enhancements
include a more user-friendly layout, the addition of multilingual text,
and a foundation for data collection that both satisfies the petition
requirements and streamlines the process for partaking in the Expanded
CSP program.
DATES: Pilot duration: The Expanded CSP program will continue until
October 31, 2024. Each partner IP office will continue to grant no more
than 400 requests per year per partner office for the duration of the
pilot.
New petition option applicability date: The combined petition
option and the related process will take effect on January 18, 2023.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: You may direct inquiries regarding any
specific application participating in the pilot to Jessica Patterson;
Senior Advisor and Director; International Worksharing, Planning, and
Implementation; Office of International Patent Cooperation; at 571-272-
8828 or [email protected]. You may email any inquiry
regarding this pilot program and the petition process to [email protected].
You may direct inquiries concerning this notice to Michael Arguello;
Management and Program Analyst; International Worksharing, Planning,
and Implementation; Office of International Patent Cooperation; at 571-
270-7876 or [email protected].
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
I. Background
The USPTO continually looks for ways to improve its worksharing
pilot programs, including the Expanded CSP program. The Expanded CSP
program provides applicants who cross-file with the USPTO and the JPO
or the KIPO with search results from each partner IP office early in
the examination process. It is designed to accelerate examination and
provide the applicant with more comprehensive prior art by combining
the search expertise of the USPTO and the JPO or the KIPO examiners
before issuing a first Office action. For additional details about this
program, see Expanded Collaborative Search Pilot Program Extension, 86
FR 8183 (February 4, 2021) (Expanded CSP extension notice). Feedback
from applicants based in the United States, Korea, and Japan has cited
the petition process as an area for improvement, specifically the
requirement to petition each partner IP office separately. As a result,
the USPTO collaborated with its partner IP offices, the JPO and the
KIPO, to develop combined petition forms (PTO/437-JP for the USPTO/JPO
pilot program and PTO/437-KR for the USPTO/KIPO pilot program).
Submitting a completed combined petition form to either the USPTO or
the partner IP office (the JPO or the KIPO) will result in receipt of
the form at both offices in the corresponding pilot program and
placement in the application files of both counterpart applications.
The current petition option and process, in which an applicant
files a separate petition or a request with each partner IP office
(original petition option), remains available. Under the original
petition option, an applicant must submit petition form PTO/SB/437
(without the JP or KR designation) to the USPTO to request CSP
participation for the U.S. application and must make a separate
submission to the partner IP office in the desired pilot to request CSP
participation for a counterpart application.
II. Overview of the Combined Petition Option
Applicants need only submit one combined petition form to the USPTO
or the partner IP office (the JPO or the KIPO). There are separate
agreements between the USPTO and the JPO and the USPTO and the KIPO.
Therefore, to request participation in the corresponding pilot program
between the USPTO and the JPO using this combined petition option,
applicants must file the combined petition form PTO/437-JP with either
the USPTO or the JPO. Likewise, to request participation in the
corresponding pilot program between the USPTO and the KIPO using this
combined petition option, applicants must file the combined petition
form PTO/437-KR with either the USPTO or the KIPO. However, if an
application corresponds to more than one application in a partner IP
office, the combined petition option cannot be used. In this situation,
an applicant must use the original petition option (form PTO/SB/437,
without the JP or KR designation) to request participation in the
Expanded CSP program.
Under the combined petition option, use of the proper combined
petition form will assist applicants in complying with the pilot
program's requirements and will assist the USPTO in quickly identifying
participating applications and their corresponding partner IP office.
The combined petition forms for the USPTO/JPO pilot program and the
USPTO/KIPO pilot program are multilingual. Both combined petition forms
provide links to the requirements (with exceptions noted in section VI
below) and conditions for entry into the respective pilot program for
each partner IP office. As each partner IP office's conditions for
entry may differ, applicants should review the requirements of the
relevant partner IP offices to ensure compliance.
Forms PTO/437-JP and PTO/437-KR are available as Portable Document
Format (PDF) fillable forms at the USPTO's CSP website at
www.uspto.gov/CollaborativeSearch. The forms can also be accessed at
the USPTO website at www.uspto.gov/PatentForms. The Office of
Management and Budget (OMB) has reviewed and approved the collection of
information involved in this pilot program, under the Paperwork
Reduction Act of 1995 (44 U.S.C. 3501 et seq.), as part of a collection
identified by OMB control number 0651-0079. Collection 0651-0079 is
available at OMB's Information Collection Review website,
www.reginfo.gov/public/do/PRAMain. No fee for the combined petition to
make special under 37 CFR 1.102 is required for participation in the
Expanded CSP program.
III. Filing a Combined Petition Form
If opting to use a combined petition form, applicants must file a
completed combined petition form (PTO/437-JP or PTO/437-KR) for each
pilot program in which the applicant wishes to participate.
Combined petition form PTO/437-JP must either be directly filed in
the U.S. application or directly with the JPO for the USPTO/JPO pilot
program, and combined petition form PTO/437-KR must either be directly
filed in the U.S. application or directly with the KIPO for the USPTO/
KIPO pilot program. If the combined petition form is directly filed in
the U.S. application, the applicant must file it using either USPTO
filing system(s) or Patent Center. If the applicant directly files the
combined petition form with the partner IP office, the combined
petition form must be accompanied by supporting documents (e.g., an
English translation of the claims of the application filed in the
partner IP office; a machine translation of the claims is acceptable).
The corresponding partner IP office will
[[Page 2894]]
then transmit the combined petition form and supporting documents to
the USPTO. The applicant should not file the combined petition form
directly with both the USPTO and the corresponding partner IP office.
Based on the agreements between the USPTO and the partner IP
offices, if the applicant directly files the combined petition form
with the USPTO, then the USPTO must transmit the completed form and any
accompanying supporting documents, along with the date of receipt, to
the corresponding partner IP office. Additionally, if the applicant
files the combined petition form directly with the JPO or the KIPO,
then the partner IP office that receives the filing must transmit the
form and the accompanying supporting documents, along with its date of
receipt, to the USPTO. The USPTO will then place the combined petition
form and the accompanying supporting documents in the file of the U.S.
application. Incomplete combined petition forms will not be forwarded
to the corresponding partner IP office and will be dismissed in
accordance with the Memorandums of Cooperation between the USPTO and
the respective partner IP offices.
Under the combined petition option, the partner IP offices have
agreed to transmit the combined petition form to the corresponding
partner IP office within 15 days of receipt from the applicant. This
reduces the risk of the counterpart application being acted upon by an
examiner in the partner IP office before that application enters the
pilot program, which would result in both applications being denied
entry into the Expanded CSP program. The request for participation in
the Expanded CSP program must be granted by both the IP office in which
the request is directly filed and the partner IP office prior to any
examination of the counterpart applications in either office.
To the extent that the combined petition form forwarded to the
USPTO from a partner IP office does not comply with the requirements of
37 CFR 1.4(d)(2) and (d)(3), and 1.6(a), these requirements are waived
for certain elements. Specifically, with respect to 37 CFR 1.4(d)(2), a
forwarded combined petition form containing an S-signature will not be
required to be filed by facsimile transmission, via the USPTO patent
electronic filing system (i.e., USPTO filing system(s) or Patent
Center), or on paper. With respect to 37 CFR 1.4(d)(3), a forwarded
combined petition form containing a graphic representation of a
handwritten signature or an S-signature will not be required to be
filed via the USPTO patent electronic filing system. With respect to 37
CFR 1.6(a), a forwarded combined petition form will be accorded a
receipt date even though it was not received at the USPTO by mail,
filed via the USPTO patent electronic filing system, or hand-delivered
to the USPTO. The U.S. receipt date of the combined petition form will
either be the actual date that the combined petition form is received
at the USPTO via the USPTO patent electronic filing system or the date
the combined petition form is transmitted to the USPTO from the partner
IP office, which may not be the same as the receipt date in the partner
IP office.
IV. Requirements for Participation in the Expanded CSP
To be accepted into the Expanded CSP program, applicants who use
the combined petition option must meet all the requirements of the
pilot program that are set forth in section III of the Expanded CSP
extension notice, except with the following modifications.
Under the combined petition option, the combined petition form PTO/
437-JP or PTO/437-KR must be used instead of form PTO/SB/437, and the
combined petition form, as discussed above, must be submitted to either
the USPTO or the partner IP office (the JPO or the KIPO). Separate
petitions are not required to be filed in both the USPTO and the
partner IP office. The combined petition form PTO/437-JP or PTO/437-KR
also includes an express written consent under 35 U.S.C. 122(c) for the
USPTO to receive the combined petition form (if filed directly with the
corresponding partner IP office) and to accept and consider prior art
references and comments from the designated partner IP office during
the examination of the U.S. application. In addition, the combined
petition form includes written authorization for the USPTO to forward
the form (if filed directly with the USPTO) to the corresponding
partner IP office and to provide to the designated partner IP office,
before a first Office action on the merits, access to the participating
U.S. application's bibliographic data and search results, in accordance
with 35 U.S.C. 122(a) and 37 CFR 1.14(c). No other consents are
required.
V. Treatment of a Combined Petition Form
The combined petition form filed directly or indirectly in the U.S.
application will be treated in the manner set forth in section IV of
the Expanded CSP extension notice.
VI. Requirement for Restriction
The requirement for restriction set forth in section V of the
Expanded CSP extension notice remains the same for the combined
petition option.
VII. First Action on the Merits
Under the Expanded CSP program, the USPTO examiner will consider
all exchanged search results. However, search results that are not
received by the USPTO within four months from the date the USPTO
granted the petition may not be included in the first action on the
merits (FAOM). The examiner will prepare and issue an Office action and
notify the applicant if any designated partner IP office did not
provide search results prior to the issuance of the Office action. Once
an FAOM issues, the application will no longer be treated as special
under the Expanded CSP program.
The USPTO will continue to cooperate with applicants, IP
stakeholders, and partner IP offices to improve the CSP process. More
information on the CSP is available at www.uspto.gov/CollaborativeSearch.
Katherine K. Vidal,
Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of
the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
[FR Doc. 2023-00799 Filed 1-17-23; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3510-16-P
