Department of Commerce June 25, 2010 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

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).

Pursuant to the Federal Advisory Committee Act, 5 U.S.C. app. 2, notice is hereby given that the Panel of Judges of the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award will meet on Tuesday, September 7, 2010. The Panel of Judges is composed of twelve members prominent in the fields of quality, innovation, and performance management and appointed by the Secretary of Commerce, assembled to advise the Secretary of Commerce on the conduct of the Baldrige Award. The purpose of this meeting is to review applicant consensus scores and select applicants for site visit review. The applications under review by Judges contain trade secrets and proprietary commercial information submitted to the Government in confidence.

The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) is clarifying the procedure for seeking review of a determination that a substantial new question of patentability (SNQ) has been raised in an ex parte reexamination proceeding. This notice clarifies that while issues related to a SNQ determination are procedural, the Chief Judge of the Board of Patent Appeals and Interferences (BPAI) has been delegated the authority to review issues related to the examiner's determination that a reference raises a SNQ in an ex parte reexamination proceeding. The Chief Judge of the BPAI may further delegate that authority to the panel of Administrative Patent Judges who are deciding the appeal in an ex parte reexamination proceeding. This clarification of procedure will facilitate more efficient resolution of SNQ issues.

In December 2009, the Governments of the United States and Turkey agreed to establish a U.S.-Turkey Business Council. This notice announces the opportunity for appointment as private sector members to the U.S. Section of the Council.

The Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) is amending the Export Administration Regulations (EAR or Regulations) to modify the requirements of License Exception ENC, ``Encryption Commodities, Software and Technology,'' and the requirements for qualifying an encryption item as mass market. BIS is also amending specific license requirements for encryption items. With respect to encryption products of lesser national security concern, this rule replaces the requirement to wait 30 days for a technical review before exporting such products and the requirement to file semi-annual post-export sales and distribution reports with a provision that allows immediate authorization to export and reexport these products after electronic submission to BIS of an encryption registration. A condition of this new authorization for less sensitive products is submission of an annual self-classification report on these commodities and software exported under License Exception ENC. With respect to most mass market encryption products, this rule similarly replaces the requirement to wait 30 days for a technical review before exporting and reexporting such products with a provision that allows immediate authorization to export and reexport these products after electronic submission to BIS of an encryption registration, subject to annual self-classification reporting for exported encryption products. Only a few categories of License Exception ENC and mass market encryption products will continue to require submission of a 30-day classification request. Encryption items that are more strictly controlled continue to be authorized for immediate export and reexport to most end-users located in close ally countries upon submission of an encryption registration and classification request to BIS. This rule also eases licensing requirements for the export and reexport of many types of technology necessary for the development and use of encryption products, except to countries subject to export or reexport license requirements for national security reasons or anti-terrorism reasons, or that are subject to embargo or sanctions. This rule also removes the requirement to file separate encryption classification requests (formerly encryption review requests) with both BIS and the ENC Encryption Request Coordinator (Ft. Meade, MD).