[Federal Register Volume 73, Number 18 (Monday, January 28, 2008)]
[Notices]
[Pages 4848-4850]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: E8-1389]
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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
Patent and Trademark Office
Recording Assignments
ACTION: Proposed collection; comment request.
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SUMMARY: The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), 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 the continuing information collection, as
required by the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, Public Law 104-13 (44
U.S.C. 3506(c)(2)(A)).
DATES: Written comments must be submitted on or before March 28, 2008.
ADDRESSES: You may submit comments by any of the following methods:
E-mail: [email protected]. Include ``0651-0027 comment'' in
the subject line of the message.
Fax: 571-273-0112, marked to the attention of Susan Fawcett.
Mail: Susan K. Fawcett, Records Officer, Office of the Chief
Information Officer, Customer Information Services Group, Public
Information Services Division, U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, P.O.
Box 1450, Alexandria, VA 22313-1450.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Requests for additional information
should be directed to Joyce R. Johnson, Manager, Assignment Division,
Mail Stop 1450, U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, P.O. Box 1450,
Alexandria, VA 22313-1450; by telephone at 703-308-9706; or by e-mail
at [email protected].
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
I. Abstract
This collection of information is required by 35 U.S.C. 261 and 262
for patents and 15 U.S.C. 1057 and 1060 of the Trademark Act of 1946
for trademarks. These statutes authorize the United States Patent and
Trademark Office (USPTO) to record patent and trademark assignment
documents, including transfers of properties (i.e. patents and
trademarks), liens, licenses, assignments of interest, security
interests, mergers, and explanations of transactions or other documents
that record the transfer of ownership of a particular patent or
trademark property from one party to another. Assignments are recorded
for applications, patents, and trademark registrations.
The USPTO administers these statutes through 37 CFR 2.146, 2.171,
and 37 CFR Part 3. These rules permit the public, corporations, other
federal agencies, and Government-owned or Government-controlled
corporations to submit patent and trademark assignment documents and
other documents related to title transfers to the USPTO to be recorded.
In accordance with 37 CFR 3.54, the recording of an assignment document
by the USPTO is an administrative action and not a determination of the
validity of the document or of the effect that the document has on the
title to an application, patent, or trademark.
Once the assignment documents are recorded, they are available for
public inspection. The only exceptions are those documents that are
sealed under secrecy orders according to 37 CFR 3.58 or related to
unpublished patent applications maintained in confidence under 35
U.S.C. 122 and 37 CFR 1.14. The public uses these records to conduct
ownership and chain-of-title searches. The public may view these
records either at the USPTO Public Search Facilities or at the National
Archives and Records Administration, depending on the date they were
recorded. The public may also search patent and trademark assignment
information online through the USPTO Web site.
In order to file a request to record an assignment, the respondent
must submit an appropriate cover sheet along with copies of the
assignment documents to be recorded. The USPTO provides two paper forms
for this purpose, the Patent Recordation Form Cover Sheet (PTO-1595)
and the Trademark Recordation
[[Page 4849]]
Form Cover Sheet (PTO-1594), which capture all of the necessary data
for accurately recording various assignment documents.
Customers may also submit assignments online by using the
Electronic Patent Assignment System (EPAS) and the Electronic Trademark
Assignment System (ETAS), which are available through the USPTO Web
site. These systems allow customers to fill out the required cover
sheet information online using web-based forms and then attach the
electronic assignment documents to be submitted for recordation.
Previously, customers could also submit patent assignment
recordation requests securely over the internet using special
electronic filing software that was developed by the USPTO.
Particularly large recordation requests that were prepared using the
software could be copied onto a recordable compact disc (CD) and then
submitted to the USPTO by mail. Since the USPTO has retired this
electronic filing software in favor of the web-based filing system, the
corresponding modes of submission are being deleted from this
collection.
II. Method of Collection
By mail, facsimile, hand delivery, or electronically to the USPTO.
III. Data
OMB Number: 0651-0027.
Form Number(s): PTO-1594 and PTO-1595.
Type of Review: Revision of a currently approved collection.
Affected Public: Individuals or households; businesses or other
for-profits; not-for-profit institutions; the Federal Government; and
state, local or tribal governments.
Estimated Number of Respondents: 363,388 responses per year.
Estimated Time per Response: The USPTO estimates that it will take
the public approximately 30 minutes (0.5 hours) to prepare and submit a
patent or trademark assignment recordation request.
Estimated Total Annual Respondent Burden Hours: 181,695 hours per
year.
Estimated Total Annual Respondent Cost Burden: $35,793,915 per
year. The USPTO expects that the information in this collection will be
prepared by both attorneys and paralegals. The estimated rate of $197
per hour used in this collection is an average of the paraprofessional
rate of $90 per hour and the professional rate of $304 per hour for
associate attorneys in private firms. Using the average rate of $197
per hour, the USPTO estimates that the respondent cost burden for
submitting the information in this collection will be $35,793,915 per
year.
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Estimated time Estimated Estimated
Item Form number for response annual annual burden
(minutes) responses hours
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Patent Recordation Form Cover Sheet.. PTO-1595................. 30 130,387 65,194
Trademark Recordation Form Cover PTO-1594................. 30 4,584 2,292
Sheet.
Electronic Patent Assignment System PTO-1595................. 30 203,969 101,985
(EPAS).
Electronic Trademark Assignment PTO-1594................. 30 24,448 12,224
System (ETAS).
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Totals........................... ......................... .............. 363,388 181,695
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Estimated Total Annual Non-hour Respondent Cost Burden: $27,165,603
per year. There are no maintenance costs associated with this
information collection. However, this collection does have annual (non-
hour) costs in the form of filing fees, recordkeeping costs, and
postage costs.
This collection has filing fees associated with submitting patent
and trademark assignment documents to be recorded. The filing fees for
recording patent and trademark assignments are the same for both paper
and electronic submissions. However, the filing cost for recording
patent or trademark assignments varies according to the number of
properties involved in each submission.
The filing fee for submitting a patent assignment as indicated by
37 CFR 1.21(h) is $40 for recording each property in a document, while
the filing fee for submitting a trademark assignment as indicated by 37
CFR 2.6(b)(6) is $40 for recording the first property in a document and
$25 for each additional property in the same document. The USPTO
estimates that the average fee for a patent assignment recordation
request is approximately $65 and that the average fee for a trademark
assignment recordation request is approximately $184. Therefore, this
collection has an estimated total of $27,075,028 in filing fees per
year.
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Estimated
Item Form number annual Average fee Estimated annual
responses amount filing costs
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Patent Recordation Form Cover Sheet. PTO-1595............... 130,387 $65.00 $8,475,155.00
Trademark Recordation Form Cover PTO-1594............... 4,584 184.00 843,456.00
Sheet.
Electronic Patent Assignment System PTO-1595............... 203,969 65.00 13,257,985.00
(EPAS).
Electronic Trademark Assignment PTO-1594............... 24,448 184.00 4,498,432.00
System (ETAS).
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Totals.......................... ....................... 363,388 .............. 27,075,028.00
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There are also recordkeeping costs associated with submitting
assignment documents online using EPAS and ETAS. The USPTO recommends
that customers print and retain a copy of the acknowledgment receipt
that appears on the screen after a successful submission. Customers
will also receive an electronic copy of this receipt. The USPTO
estimates that it will take 5 seconds (0.001 hours) to print a copy of
the acknowledgment receipt and that approximately 228,417 submissions
per year will be completed via EPAS and ETAS, for a total of
approximately 228 hours per year for printing this receipt. The USPTO
expects that these receipts will be printed by paraprofessionals at an
estimated rate of $90 per hour, for a recordkeeping cost of $20,520 per
year.
[[Page 4850]]
Customers may incur postage costs when submitting a patent or
trademark assignment request to the USPTO by mail. The USPTO expects
that some assignment requests will be submitted by fax but that
approximately 87,569 of the 134,971 paper assignment requests per year
will be submitted by mail. The USPTO estimates that the average first-
class postage cost for a mailed Patent or Trademark Recordation Form
Cover Sheet submission is 80 cents, resulting in a total postage cost
for this collection of $70,055 per year.
The total non-hour respondent cost burden for this collection in
the form of filing fees, recordkeeping costs, and postage costs is
estimated to be $27,165,603 per year.
IV. Request for Comments
Comments are invited on: (a) Whether the proposed collection of
information is necessary for the proper performance of the functions of
the agency, including whether the information shall have practical
utility; (b) the accuracy of the agency's estimate of the burden
(including hours and cost) of the proposed collection of information;
(c) ways to enhance the quality, utility, and clarity of the
information to be collected; and (d) ways to minimize the burden of the
collection of information on respondents, e.g., the use of automated
collection techniques or other forms of information technology.
Comments submitted in response to this notice will be summarized or
included in the request for OMB approval of this information
collection; they also will become a matter of public record.
Dated: January 22, 2008.
Susan K. Fawcett,
Records Officer, USPTO, Office of the Chief Information Officer,
Customer Information Services Group, Public Information Services
Division.
[FR Doc. E8-1389 Filed 1-25-08; 8:45 am]
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