Department of Commerce September 2021 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

NMFS adjusts the 2021 Winter II commercial scup quota and per- trip Federal landing limit. This action is necessary to comply with Framework Adjustment 3 to the Summer Flounder, Scup, and Black Sea Bass Fishery Management Plan that established the rollover of unused commercial scup quota from the Winter I to Winter II period. This notification is intended to inform the public of this quota and trip limit change.

The United States Patent and Trademark Office has issued an order granting a one-year interim extension of the term of U.S. Patent No. 7,524,879 (`879 patent).

NMFS announces that the Commonwealth of Virginia and the State of New Jersey are transferring a portion of their 2021 commercial bluefish quota to the states of New York and North Carolina, respectively. These quota adjustments are necessary to comply with the Atlantic Bluefish Fishery Management Plan quota transfer provisions. This announcement informs the public of the revised commercial bluefish quotas for Virginia, New York, New Jersey, and New York.

The Department of Commerce (Commerce) has continued to base the dumping margin for the sole respondent under review, ARLANXEO Brasil S.A. (ARLANXEO Brasil), on total adverse facts available (AFA), pursuant to sections 776(a) and (b) of the Tariff Act of 1930, as amended (the Act). The period of review (POR) is September 1, 2019, through August 31, 2020.

The Leahy-Smith America Invents Act (America Invents Act) includes provisions for prioritized examination of patent applications that have been implemented by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO or Office) in previous rulemakings. The America Invents Act provides that the Office may not accept more than 10,000 requests for prioritization in any fiscal year (October 1 to September 30) until regulations setting another limit are prescribed. The Office published an interim rule in 2019 expanding the availability of prioritized examination by increasing the limit on the number of prioritized examination requests that may be accepted in a fiscal year to 12,000. The current interim rule further expands the availability of prioritized examination by increasing the limit on the number of prioritized examination requests that may be accepted in a fiscal year to 15,000.

Executive Order 13984 of January 19, 2021, Taking Additional Steps to Address the National Emergency with Respect to Significant Malicious Cyber-Enabled Activities,'' directs the Secretary of Commerce (Secretary) to implement regulations to govern the process and procedures that the Secretary will use to deter foreign malicious cyber actors' use of United States Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) products and assist in the investigation of transactions involving foreign malicious cyber actors. The Department of Commerce (the Department) is issuing this ANPRM to solicit public comments on questions pertinent to the development of regulations pursuant to this Executive Order.

The SEDAR Steering Committee will meet via webinar to discuss the SEDAR stock assessment process and assessment schedule. See SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION.

The New England Fishery Management Council's is convening its Scientific and Statistical Committee (SSC) via webinar to consider actions affecting New England fisheries in the exclusive economic zone (EEZ). Recommendations from this group will be brought to the full Council for formal consideration and action, if appropriate.

The Department of Commerce (Commerce) determines that imports of certain aluminum foil (aluminum foil) from the Republic of Armenia (Armenia) are being, or are likely to be, sold in the United States at less than fair value (LTFV) for the period of investigation, January 1, 2020, through June 30, 2020.

The Department of Commerce (Commerce) determines that imports of certain aluminum foil (aluminum foil) from Brazil are being, or are likely to be, sold in the United States at less than fair value (LTFV) for the period of investigation (POI) July 1, 2019, through June 30, 2020.

The Department of Commerce (Commerce) determines that countervailable subsidies are being provided to producers and exporters of certain aluminum foil (aluminum foil) from the Republic of Turkey (Turkey) during the period of investigation, January 1, 2019, through December 31, 2019.

The Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council will hold a meeting via webinar of its Law Enforcement Technical Committee (LETC), in conjunction with the Gulf States Marine Fisheries Commission's (GSMFC) Law Enforcement Committee (LEC).

The Pacific Fishery Management Council's (Pacific Council) Highly Migratory Species Management Team (HMSMT) is holding a meeting, which is open to the public.

National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) is providing notification that the agency will not identify additional fisheries to observe on the 2022 Annual Determination (AD), pursuant to its authority under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). Through the AD, NMFS identifies U.S. fisheries operating in the Atlantic Ocean, Gulf of Mexico, and Pacific Ocean that will be required to take observers upon NMFS' request. The purpose of observing identified fisheries is to learn more about sea turtle bycatch in a given fishery, evaluate measures to prevent or reduce sea turtle bycatch, and implement the prohibition against sea turtle takes. Fisheries identified on the 2018 and 2020 ADs (see Table 1) remain on the AD for a 5-year period and are required to carry observers upon NMFS' request until December 31, 2022, and September 29, 2025, respectively.

The Department of Commerce, in accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (PRA), invites the general public and other Federal agencies to comment on proposed and continuing information collections, which helps us assess the impact of our information collection requirements and minimize the public's reporting burden. The purpose of this notice is to allow for 60 days of public comment preceding submission of a request for extension of a currently approved information collection to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB).

In accordance with the regulations implementing the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA) as amended, notification is hereby given that NMFS has issued an incidental harassment authorization (IHA) to the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) to incidentally harass, by Level B harassment only, marine mammals during restoration activity associated with the Elkhorn Slough Tidal Marsh Restoration Project, Phase III, in Monterey Bay, California.

NMFS has approved an additional company to provide Northeast multispecies sector electronic monitoring services in fishing years 2021 and 2022. Regulations implementing the Northeast Multispecies Fishery Management Plan require at-sea and electronic monitoring companies to apply to, and be approved by, NMFS in order to be eligible to provide monitoring services to sectors. This action will allow sectors to contract for at-sea and electronic monitoring services with any of the approved service providers for fishing years 2021 and 2022.

The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO or Office) previously published a notice requesting comments on the implementation of certain administrative updates to the General Requirements Bulletin for Admission to the Examination for Registration to Practice in Patent Cases Before the United States Patent and Trademark Office (GRB). The USPTO has considered the comments and, based on the support for the proposals, is implementing the updates to the GRB. There are three categories of technical and scientific qualifications that may typically make applicants eligible to sit for the registration examination: Category A for specified bachelor's degrees, Category B for other bachelor's degrees with technical and scientific training, and Category C for practical engineering or scientific experience, which may be demonstrated by passing the Fundamentals of Engineering test. Based on the USPTO's evaluation and comments received, the USPTO is changing the criteria to: Add common Category B degrees to Category A, accept advanced degrees (i.e., master's and doctor of philosophy degrees) under Category A, and accept a combination of core sciences under Category B, Options 2 and 4, so long as one of the core science courses has a lab component.

The Department of Commerce (Commerce) finds that revocation of the antidumping duty (AD) order on certain tissue paper products (tissue paper) from the People's Republic of China (China) would be likely to lead to a continuation or recurrence of dumping, at the levels indicated in the ``Final Results of Sunset Review'' section of this notice.