Department of Commerce May 2010 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

This document contains a correction to the final rule to implement Amendment 31 to the Fishery Management Plan for the Reef Fish Resources of the Gulf of Mexico that was published in the Federal Register Monday, April 26, 2010.

The Department of Commerce, as part of its continuing effort to reduce paperwork and respondent burden, invites the general public and other Federal agencies to take this opportunity to comment on proposed and/or continuing information collections, as required by the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995.

The South Atlantic Fishery Management Council will hold a meeting of its Spiny Lobster Committee and Advisory Panel jointly with the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council's Spiny Lobster Committee and Advisory Panel, a meeting of its Mackerel Committee jointly with the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council's Mackerel Committee, and a meeting of the Full Council. The Council will take action as necessary. The Council will also hold an informal public question and answer session, and a public comment session regarding agenda items. See SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION for additional details.

The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) implemented the Green Technology Pilot Program on December 8, 2009, which permits patent applications pertaining to environmental quality, energy conservation, development of renewable energy resources, and greenhouse gas emission reduction to be advanced out of turn for examination and reviewed earlier (accorded special status). The program is designed to promote the development of green technologies. However, the pilot program was limited to only applications classified in a number of U.S. classifications to assist the USPTO to balance the workload and gauge resources needed for the program. The USPTO has determined that the classification requirement is unnecessary because the workload has been balanced with other mechanism, and this requirement was causing the denial of petitions for applications that are drawn to green technologies. The USPTO is hereby eliminating the classification requirement for any petitions that are decided on or after the publication date of this notice. This will permit more applications to qualify for the program, thereby allowing more inventions related to green technologies to be advanced out of turn for examination and reviewed earlier.

This notice updates information relative to the SEDAR update assessment of the South Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico stock of spiny lobster. This update will consist of a series of webinars and an Update Workshop. This assessment will update the stock assessment conducted under SEDAR 8. See SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION. The original notice published in the Federal Register on March 2, 2010, 75 FR 9397.

In accordance with the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA) and implementing regulations, notification is hereby given that NMFS has issued one-year Letters of Authorization (LOA) to take marine mammals incidental to the explosive removal of offshore oil and gas structures (EROS) in the Gulf of Mexico.

The New England Fishery Management Council's (Council) Groundfish/Scallop Advisory Panel will meet to consider actions affecting New England fisheries in the exclusive economic zone (EEZ).

This action serves as a notice that NMFS, on behalf of the Secretary of Commerce (Secretary), has determined that in the Northeast Region, Gulf of Maine/Georges Bank pollock, Gulf of Maine/Georges Bank windowpane and Northwestern Atlantic Coast witch flounder are subject to overfishing and are in an overfished condition. Also, in the Northeast Region, Southern New England/Mid-Atlantic windowpane is subject to overfishing and Georges Bank winter flounder is in an overfished condition. In addition, in the Pacific Region, the fall Chinook salmon stock in the Sacramento River has been determined to be in an overfished condition.

The Department of Commerce, as part of its continuing effort to reduce paperwork and respondent burden, invites the general public and other Federal agencies to take this opportunity to comment on proposed and/or continuing information collections, as required by the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995.

Notice is hereby given that Dr. Terrie Williams, Long Marine Lab, Institute of Marine Sciences, University of California at Santa Cruz, 100 Shaffer Road, Santa Cruz, CA 95060, has applied for an amendment to Scientific Research Permit No. 13602.

The Export Trading Company Affairs unit, Office of Competition and Economic Analysis, International Trade Administration, U.S. Department of Commerce, has received an application to amend an Export Trade Certificate of Review (``Certificate''). This notice summarizes the proposed amendment and requests comments relevant to whether the amended Certificate should be issued.

The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) is increasing the availability of its patent electronic filing system, Electronic Filing SystemWeb (EFS-Web) by providing a new contingency option when the primary portal to EFS-Web has an unscheduled outage. Previously, the entire EFS-Web system is not available to the users during such an outage. The contingency option in EFS-Web will permit users to sign-on as unregistered EFS-Web users to file new applications, national stage submissions under the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) submitted with the basic national fee necessary to enter the national stage, requests for reexamination, and certain petitions, during an unscheduled outage of the primary portal to EFS-Web.

The New England Fishery Management Council (Council) is scheduling a public meeting of its Habitat/MPA/Ecosystem Committee in June, 2010 to consider actions affecting New England fisheries in the exclusive economic zone (EEZ). Recommendations from this group will be brought to the full Council for formal consideration and action, if appropriate.

The North Pacific Fishery Management Council (Council) and its advisory committees will hold public meetings in Sitka, AK.

As a result of the determination by the Department of Commerce (``the Department'') and the International Trade Commission (``ITC'') that revocation of the antidumping duty order on chloropicrin from the People's Republic of China (``PRC'') would be likely to lead to continuation or recurrence of dumping and of material injury to an industry in the United States within a reasonably foreseeable time, the Department is publishing notice of the continuation of this antidumping duty order.

On February 22, 2010, the Department of Commerce (the Department) preliminarily determined that Evotape S.p.A was the successor-in-interest to Tyco Adhesives Italia S.p.A. (Tyco), and that Evotape Packaging S.r.l. (Evotape Packaging) and Evotape Masking S.r.l. (Evotape Masking) are both successors-in-interest to Evotape S.p.A for purposes of determining antidumping liability. See Pressure Sensitive Plastic Tape from Italy: Preliminary Results of Antidumping Duty Changed Circumstances Review, 75 FR 8925 (February 26, 2010) (Preliminary Results). We confirm our preliminary determination in these final results of changed circumstances review.

The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) publishes its final Annual Determination (AD) for 2010, pursuant to its authority under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). Through this AD, NMFS identifies commercial fisheries operating in state and Federal waters in the Atlantic Ocean, Gulf of Mexico, and Pacific Ocean that will be required to take observers upon NMFS' request. The purpose of observing identified fisheries is to learn more about sea turtle interactions in a given fishery, evaluate existing measures to reduce or prevent prohibited sea turtle takes, and to determine whether additional measures to implement the prohibition against sea turtle takes may be necessary. Fisheries identified through this process will remain on the AD, and therefore required to carry observers upon NMFS' request, for 5 years.