Agency Information Collection Activities; Submission to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for Review and Approval; Comment Request; Recording Assignments, 71259-71260 [2024-19669]

Agencies

• DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
• Patent and Trademark Office

[Federal Register Volume 89, Number 170 (Tuesday, September 3, 2024)]
[Notices]
[Pages 71259-71260]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2024-19669]


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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

Patent and Trademark Office


Agency Information Collection Activities; Submission to the 
Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for Review and Approval; Comment 
Request; Recording Assignments

    The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) will submit 
the following information collection request to the Office of 
Management and Budget (OMB) for review and clearance in accordance with 
the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, on or after the date of 
publication of this notice. The USPTO invites comments on this 
information collection renewal, which helps the USPTO assess the impact 
of its information collection requirements and minimize the public's 
reporting burden. Public comments were previously requested via the 
Federal Register on June 17, 2024 during a 60-day comment period (89 FR 
51313). This notice allows for an additional 30 days for public 
comment.
    Agency: United States Patent and Trademark Office, Department of 
Commerce.
    Title: Recording Assignments.
    OMB Control Number: 0651-0027.
    Needs and Uses: This collection of information is required by 35 
U.S.C. 261 and 262 for patents and 15 U.S.C. 1057 and 1060 for 
trademarks. These statutes authorize the United States Patent and 
Trademark Office (USPTO) to record patent and trademark assignment 
documents, including transfers of

[[Page 71260]]

properties (i.e. patents and trademarks), liens, licenses, assignments 
of interest, security interests, mergers, and explanations of 
transactions or other documents that record the transfer of ownership 
of a particular patent or trademark property from one party to another. 
Assignments are recorded for applications, patents, and trademark 
registrations.
    The USPTO administers these statutes through 37 CFR 2.146, 2.171, 
and 37 CFR part 3. These regulations permit the public, corporations, 
other federal agencies, and government-owned or government-controlled 
corporations to submit patent and trademark assignment documents and 
other documents related to title transfers to the USPTO to be recorded. 
In accordance with 37 CFR 3.54, the recording of an assignment document 
by the USPTO is an administrative action and not a determination of the 
validity of the document or of the effect that the document has on the 
title to an application, patent, or trademark.
    Once the assignment documents are recorded, they are available for 
public inspection. The only exceptions are those documents that are 
sealed under secrecy orders according to 37 CFR 3.58, or related to 
unpublished patent applications maintained in confidence under 35 
U.S.C. 122 and 37 CFR 1.14. The public uses these records to conduct 
ownership and chain-of-title searches. The public may view these 
records either at the USPTO Public Search Facility or at the National 
Archives and Records Administration, depending on the date they were 
recorded. The public may also search patent and trademark assignment 
information online through the USPTO website.
    This information collection covers the recordation of patent and 
trademark assignments. In order to record an assignment, the respondent 
must submit an assignment document along with the appropriate cover 
sheet. The USPTO provides two forms for this purpose, the Recordation 
Form Cover Sheet--Trademarks Only (PTO-1594), and the Recordation Form 
Cover Sheet--Patents Only (PTO-1595), which capture all of the 
necessary data for accurately recording various assignments. Customers 
may submit assignments electronically by using Assignment Center, which 
is available on the USPTO website.\1\ This system allows customers to 
fill out the required cover sheet information online using web-based 
forms and then attach the assignment documents to be submitted for 
recordation. The USPTO also provides paper forms that may be used to 
record an assignment. These forms may be downloaded in PDF format from 
the USPTO website.\2\
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    \1\ https://assignmentcenter.uspto.gov.
    \2\ https://www.uspto.gov/sites/default/files/pto1594.pdf and 
https://www.uspto.gov/forms/pto1595.pdf, respectively.
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    For this 30-day notice, the non-hourly cost burdens have been 
adjusted, for an overall increase of $27, due to an increase in the 
postage rate since the 60-day notice was published. Additionally, in 
response to public comments, the USPTO has added an additional 10 
minutes to this information collection burden estimate.
    Forms: (AIA= America Invents Act; SB = Specimen Book)

 PTO-1594 (Recordation Form Cover Sheet--Trademarks Only)
 PTO-1595 (Recordation Form Cover Sheet--Patents Only)

    Type of Review: Extension and revision of a currently approved 
information collection.
    Affected Public: Private sector.
    Respondent's Obligation: Required to obtain or retain benefits.
    Frequency: On occasion.
    Estimated Number of Annual Respondents: 724,442 respondents.
    Estimated Number of Annual Responses: 724,442 responses.
    Estimated Time per Response: The USPTO estimates that the responses 
in this information collection will take the public approximately 40 
minutes (0.67 hours) to complete. This includes the time to gather the 
necessary information, create the document, and submit the completed 
request to the USPTO.
    Estimated Total Annual Respondent Burden Hours: 485,376 hours.
    Estimated Total Annual Respondent Non-hourly Cost Burden: 
$9,148,330.
    This information collection request may be viewed at 
www.reginfo.gov. Follow the instructions to view Department of 
Commerce, USPTO information collections currently under review by OMB.
    Written comments and recommendations for this information 
collection should be submitted within 30 days of the publication of 
this notice on the following website, www.reginfo.gov/public/do/PRAMain. Find this particular information collection by selecting 
``Currently under 30-day Review-Open for Public Comments'' or by using 
the search function and entering either the title of the information 
collection or the OMB Control Number, 0651-0027.
    Further information can be obtained by:
     Email: [email protected]. Include ``0651-
0027 information request'' in the subject line of the message.
     Mail: Justin Isaac, Office of the Chief Administrative 
Officer, United States Patent and Trademark Office, P.O. Box 1450, 
Alexandria, VA 22313-1450.

Justin Isaac,
Information Collections Officer, Office of the Chief Administrative 
Officer, United States Patent and Trademark Office.
[FR Doc. 2024-19669 Filed 8-30-24; 8:45 am]
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