Department of Commerce December 21, 2020 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO or Office) revises the rules of practice in inter partes review (IPR), post-grant review (PGR), and the transitional program for covered business method patents (CBM) (collectively post-grant trial) proceedings before the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB or Board) to allocate the burdens of persuasion in relation to motions to amend and the patentability of substitute claims proposed therein. In light of Federal Circuit case law, and to better ensure the predictability and certainty of post-grant trial proceedings before the Board, the Office revises the rules of practice governing motions to amend, to expressly assign to the petitioner the burden of showing the unpatentability of substitute claims proposed in a motion to amend. In addition, the Office revises the rules to expressly assign to the patent owner the burden of showing that a motion to amend complies with certain statutory and regulatory requirements for such a motion. Notwithstanding the adversarial nature of the proceedings and the burdens described above, however, the Office further revises its rules to expressly provide that the Board itself may, in the interests of justice, exercise its discretion to grant or deny a motion to amend only for reasons supported by readily identifiable and persuasive evidence of record in the proceeding. The Office anticipates the Board will exercise its discretion in the interests of justice only in rare circumstances. In doing so, the Board may make of record only readily identifiable and persuasive evidence in a related proceeding before the Office or evidence that a district court can judicially notice. Where the Board exercises its discretion in such circumstances, the parties will have an opportunity to respond.

The Department of Commerce (Commerce) preliminarily determines that seamless carbon and alloy steel standard, line, and pressure pipe (seamless pipe) from the Czech Republic is being, or is likely to be, sold in the United States at less than fair value (LTFV). The period of investigation is July 1, 2019 through June 30, 2020. Interested parties are invited to comment on this preliminary determination.

The Department of Commerce (Commerce) preliminarily finds that the Norma Group and R.N. Gupta & Co. Ltd. (Gupta), producers/exporters of finished carbon steel flanges (flanges) from India, did not sell subject merchandise at prices below normal value (NV) during the period of review (POR) August 1, 2018 through July 31, 2019. Additionally, Commerce preliminarily determines that Silbo Industries, Inc. (Silbo) had no shipments of subject merchandise during the POR. We invite interested parties to comment on these preliminary results.

The Pacific Fishery Management Council's (Pacific Council) Groundfish Management Team (GMT) will hold a week-long work session that is open to the public.

The South Atlantic Fishery Management Council's (Council) Scientific and Statistical Committee (SSC) will hold a meeting via webinar. See SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION.

CBERA, as amended, provides duty-free treatment for certain apparel articles imported directly from Haiti. One of the preferences is known as the ``value-added'' provision, which requires that apparel meet a minimum threshold percentage of value added in Haiti, the United States, and/or certain beneficiary countries. The provision is subject to a quantitative limitation, which is calculated as a percentage of total apparel imports into the United States for each 12-month period. For the period from December 20, 2020 through December 19, 2021, the quantity of imports eligible for preferential treatment under the value-added provision is 337,967,087 square meters equivalent.

NMFS announces 2021 specifications for the summer flounder, scup, and black sea fisheries. The implementing regulations for the Summer Flounder, Scup, and Black Sea Bass Fishery Management Plan require us to publish specifications for the upcoming fishing year for each of these species. This action is intended to inform the public of the specifications for the start of the 2021 fishing year for summer flounder, scup, and black sea bass.

The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO or Office) is amending the rules of practice in patent cases to clarify and expand exceptions to the rule pertaining to government use licenses and their effect on small entity status for purposes of paying reduced patent fees. The rule change is designed to support independent inventors, small business concerns, and nonprofit organizations in filing patent applications and to encourage collaboration with the Federal Government by expanding the opportunities to qualify for the small entity patent fees discount for inventions made during the course of federally funded or federally supported research.