Submission for OMB Review; Comment Request; Legal Processes

The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USTPO) will submit to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for clearance the following proposal for collection of information under the provisions of the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995.

Agency: United States Patent and Trademark Office, (USPTO).

Title: Legal Processes.

OMB Control Number: 0651-0046.

Form Number(s): None.

Type of Request: Extension of an existing information collection.

Number of Respondents: 309 responses per year. The USPTO estimates that approximately 10% of these responses will be from small entities.

Average Hours per Response: The USPTO estimates that it will take the public from 5 minutes (0.08 hours) to 6 hours to prepare a single item in this collection, including gathering the necessary information, preparing the appropriate documents, and submitting the information required for this collection.

Burden Hours: 132 hours.

Cost Burden (non-hourly): $7,621. This cost burden includes filing fees associated with the petition to waive or suspend the legal process rules under 37 CFR 104.3 and postage costs associated with the items in the collection.

Needs and Uses: The purpose of this collection is to cover information requirements related to civil actions and claims involving current and former employees of the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). The rules for these legal processes may be found under 37 CFR part 104, which outlines procedures for service of process, demands for employee testimony and production of documents in legal proceedings, reports of unauthorized testimony, employee indemnification, and filing claims against the USPTO under the Federal Tort Claims Act (28 U.S.C. 2672) and the corresponding Department of Justice regulations (28 CFR part 14). The public may also petition the USPTO Office of General Counsel under 37 CFR 104.3 to waive or suspend these rules in extraordinary cases.

There are no forms provided by the USPTO for this collection. For filing claims under the Federal Tort Claims Act, the public may use Standard Form 95 “Claim for Damage, Injury, or Death,” which is provided by the Department of Justice and approved by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) under OMB Control Number 1105-0008.

Affected Public: Individuals or households; businesses or other for-profits; not-for-profit institutions; and the Federal Government.

Frequency: On occasion.

Respondent's Obligation: Required to Obtain or Retain Benefits.

OMB Desk Officer: Nicholas A. Fraser, email: Nicholas_A._Fraser@omb.eop.gov. Once submitted, the request will be publicly available in electronic format through reginfo.gov. Follow the instructions to view Department of Commerce collections currently under review by OMB.

Further information can be obtained by:

• Email: InformationCollection@uspto.gov. Include “0651-0046 information request” in the subject line of the message.
• Mail: Marcie Lovett, Records and Information Governance Branch, Office of the Chief Administration Officer, United States Patent and Trademark Office, P.O. Box 1450, Alexandria, VA 22313-1450.

Written comments and recommendations for the proposed information collection should be sent on or before December 27, 2019 to Nicholas A. Fraser, OMB Desk Officer, via email to Nicholas_A._Fraser@omb.eop.gov, or by fax to 202-395-5167, marked to the attention of Nicholas A. Fraser.