Department of Commerce December 11, 2013 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

On August 21, 2013, NMFS published the proposed rule for Draft Amendment 7 to the 2006 Consolidated Highly Migratory Species (HMS) Fishery Management Plan (FMP) to control bluefin incidental catch (landings and dead discards) in the pelagic longline fishery, enhance reporting in all categories, and ensure U.S. compliance with the ICCAT- recommended quota. As described in the proposed rule, the proposed measures include Allocation measures, Area-Based measures, Bluefin Quota Controls, Enhanced Reporting measures, and other measures that modify rules with respect to how the various quota categories utilize quota. In the proposed rule, NMFS announced the end of the comment period as October 23, 2013, which would allow an approximately 60-day comment period. On September 18, 2013, NMFS extended the comment period through December 10, 2013, in order to provide additional opportunities for the public and other interested parties to comment on the proposed rule, and to provide adequate time for constituents to consider potential changes to the regulatory environment resulting from any new recommendations by the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas at its November 2013 meeting. However, due to the government shutdown and NMFS' inability to respond to constituents on this complex rule during that time frame and based on the comments received to date requesting an extension due to the complexity and interplay of the measures covered in the DEIS, NMFS is reopening the comment period for this action until January 10, 2014, to provide additional opportunity for informed public comment.

The United States Patent and Trademark Office (Office) published in the Federal Register on October 21, 2013, a final rule revising the rules of practice in patent cases for consistency with the changes in the Patent Law Treaty (PLT) and provisions of the Patent Law Treaties Implementation Act of 2012 (PLTIA) that implement the PLT (PLT Final Rule). The PLT Final Rule as published in the Federal Register inadvertently omits the small and micro entity fee amounts for certain petitions and contains a cross-reference to a section that has been removed. This document corrects the omission and removes the cross- reference in the PLT Final Rule as published in the Federal Register.