Department of Commerce November 12, 2014 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) is announcing a December 2, 2014 roundtable and requesting written comments on USPTO use of crowdsourcing to identify relevant prior art. Members of the public are invited to participate at the roundtable. On February 20, 2014, the White House issued a series of executive actions including crowdsourcing prior art as a means to strengthen patent quality. The roundtable will address the executive action by exploring: (1) How the USPTO can utilize crowdsourcing tools to obtain relevant prior art in order to enhance the quality of examination and issued patents; and (2) ways the USPTO can leverage existing private sector solutions for the electronic receipt and hosting of crowdsourced materials as a means to provide prior art to examiners.

The Finance Committee of the First Responder Network Authority (FirstNet) Board will hold a Special Meeting via telephone conference (teleconference) on November 17, 2014.

This final rule announces inseason changes to management measures in the Pacific Coast groundfish fisheries. This action, which is authorized by the Pacific Coast Groundfish Fishery Management Plan (PCGFMP), is intended to allow fisheries to access more abundant groundfish stocks while protecting overfished and depleted stocks.

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.

This final rule makes clarifications and corrections to an interim final rule that was published on May 13, 2014. The May 13 rule added controls to the Export Administration Regulations (EAR) for spacecraft and related items that the President has determined no longer warrant control under United States Munitions List (USML) Category XVspacecraft and related items. New Export Control Classification Numbers (ECCNs) 9A515, 9B515, 9D515, and 9E515 created by the May 13 rule and existing ECCNs on the Commerce Control List (CCL) will control such items. The May 13 rule also revised various sections of the EAR to provide the proper level of control for the new ECCNs. The vast majority of the changes included in the May 13 rule have been implemented as published in the interim final rule, so those change are not republished in this final rule. A full description of those changes can be found in the Background section and the regulatory text of the May 13 rule. The changes included in this final rule are limited to corrections and clarifications to what was included in the interim final rule. These corrections and clarifications were also informed by comments received in response to the May 13 rule that included a request for comments.