Department of Commerce February 10, 2012 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

This notice is to advise the schedule and proposed agenda of a meeting of the Environmental Technologies Trade Advisory Committee (ETTAC) will be changed to include additional topics.

NMFS issues this final rule to implement management measures described in Amendment 32 to the Fishery Management Plan (FMP) for the Reef Fish Resources of the Gulf of Mexico (Amendment 32) prepared by the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council (Council). This rule adjusts the commercial gag quota and recreational annual catch target (ACT) for 2012 through 2015 and subsequent fishing years, consistent with the gag rebuilding plan established in Amendment 32; adjusts the shallow-water grouper (SWG) quota; adjusts the commercial and recreational sector annual catch limits (ACLs) for gag and red grouper; adjusts the commercial ACL for SWG; establishes a formula-based method for setting gag and red grouper multi-use allocation for the grouper/ tilefish individual fishing quota (IFQ) program in the Gulf of Mexico (Gulf); sets the recreational gag fishing season from July 1 through October 31; reduces the gag commercial size limit to 22 inches (59 cm) total length (TL); and modifies the gag and red grouper accountability measures (AMs). In addition, Amendment 32 establishes gag commercial ACTs and a 10-year gag rebuilding plan consistent with the requirements of the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act (Magnuson-Stevens Act). This final rule is intended to end overfishing of gag, allow the gag stock to rebuild, and adjust red grouper management measures to allow the harvest of optimum yield (OY).

The Department of Commerce is currently seeking applications for public or semi-public organizations or entities, including ports, to serve as members of the Advisory Committee on Supply Chain Competitiveness (Committee). Representatives of ports are particularly encouraged to apply. The purpose of the Committee is to advise the Secretary on the necessary elements of a comprehensive, holistic national freight infrastructure and a national freight policy designed to support U.S. export growth and competitiveness, foster national economic competitiveness, and improve U.S. supply chain competitiveness in the domestic and global economy.

In response to a request from an interested party, Eurodif S.A. and AREVA NP Inc. (collectively, AREVA), the Department of Commerce (Department) initiated a changed circumstances review (CCR) of the antidumping duty order of low enriched uranium (LEU) from France.\1\ We preliminarily determine that it is appropriate to issue a one-time amendment to the scope of the order to extend by 18 months the deadline otherwise applicable to AREVA for the re-exportation of one entry of LEU. We invite interested parties to comment on these preliminary results. Parties who submit comments in these reviews are requested to submit with each argument (1) a statement of the issue and (2) a brief summary of the argument.

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 Caribbean Fishery Management Council's Scientific and Statistical Committee (SSC) and the Advisory Panel (AP) will hold meetings.

The Gulf of Mexico and South Atlantic Fishery Management Councils will convene a meeting of the Ad Hoc Goliath Grouper Joint Council Steering Committee.

The United States Patent and Trademark Office (Office or USPTO) proposes a new rule to implement the provision of the Leahy- Smith America Invents Act that requires the Office to issue regulations for determining whether a patent is for a technological invention in a transitional post-grant review proceeding for covered business method patents. The provision of the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act will take effect on September 16, 2012, one year after the date of enactment. The provision and any regulations issued under the provision will be repealed on September 16, 2020, with respect to any new petitions under the transitional program.

The United States Patent and Trademark Office (Office or USPTO) proposes new rules to implement the provisions of the Leahy- Smith America Invents Act that create a new inter partes review proceeding to be conducted before the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (Board). These provisions of the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act will take effect on September 16, 2012, one year after the date of enactment, and apply to any patent issued before, on, or after the effective date.

The United States Patent and Trademark Office (Office or USPTO) proposes new rules to implement the provisions of the Leahy- Smith America Invents Act that create a new post-grant review proceeding to be conducted before the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (Board). These provisions of the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act will take effect on September 16, 2012, one year after the date of enactment, and generally apply to patents issuing from applications subject to first-inventor-to-file provisions of the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act.