Department of Commerce September 17, 2020 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The Information Security and Privacy Advisory Board (ISPAB) will meet Wednesday, October 14, 2020 from 10:00 a.m. until 5:00 p.m., Eastern Time, and Thursday, October 15, 2020 from 10:00 a.m. until 5:00 p.m., Eastern Time. All sessions will be open to the public.

The Pacific Fishery Management Council's (Pacific Council) Ad Hoc Southern Oregon/Northern California Coast (SONCC) Coho Workgroup (Workgroup) will host an online meeting over a two-day period that is open to the public.

Notice is hereby given that permits and permit amendments have been issued to the following entities under the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA) and the Endangered Species Act (ESA), as applicable.

Patents and published patent applications provide a key source of free-flowing technical information among the world's brightest minds, thus promoting further innovation. The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO or Office) recognizes that its charge to issue high-quality patents to inventors goes hand-in-hand with dissemination of this important information. Such information flow is now more important than ever in view of the urgent challenges posed by COVID-19. Therefore, the USPTO is implementing a deferred-fee provisional patent application pilot program (the program) to promote the expedited exchange of information about inventions designed to combat COVID-19. Under this program, the USPTO will permit applicants to defer payment of the provisional application filing fee until the filing of a corresponding nonprovisional application. In turn, applicants must agree that the technical subject matter disclosed in their provisional applications will be made available to the public via a searchable collaboration database maintained on the USPTO's website. To qualify for the program, the subject matter disclosed in the provisional application must concern a product or process related to COVID-19, and such product or process must be subject to an applicable Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval for COVID-19 use, whether such approval has been obtained, is pending, or will be sought prior to marketing the subject matter for COVID-19.

This final rule revises measures that govern interactions between the Hawaii shallow-set pelagic longline fishery and sea turtles. This rule lowers the annual fleet interaction limit (``hard cap'') for leatherback sea turtles from 26 to 16, and removes the annual fleet hard cap for North Pacific loggerhead turtles. This rule also creates individual trip interaction limits of two leatherback and five North Pacific loggerhead turtle interactions, with accountability measures for reaching a limit. This rule provides managers and fishermen with the necessary tools to respond to and mitigate changes in North Pacific loggerhead and leatherback turtle interactions to ensure a continued supply of fresh domestic swordfish to U.S. markets, consistent with the conservation needs of these sea turtles. This action also ensures that the Hawaii shallow-set longline fishery operates in compliance with the conditions of a recent biological opinion (BiOp).