Agency Information Collection Activities; Submission to the Office of Management and Budget for Review and Approval; Comment Request; DOCX Submission Requirements
The United States Patent and Trademark Office (hereafter "USPTO" or "Agency") will submit the following information collection request to the Office of Management and Budget (OM...
United States Patent and Trademark Office, Department of Commerce.
ACTION:
Notice of information collection; request for comments.
SUMMARY:
The United States Patent and Trademark Office (hereafter “USPTO” or “Agency”) will submit the following information collection request to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for review and clearance in accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, on or after the date of publication of this notice. The USPTO invites comments on the information collection renewal of 0651-0089, which helps the USPTO assess the impact of its information collection requirements and minimize the reporting burden to the public. Public comments were previously requested via the
Federal Register
on April 27, 2026, during a 60-day comment period (91 FR 22526). This notice allows for an additional 30 days for public comments.
DATES:
To ensure consideration, you must submit comments regarding this information collection on or before November 30, 2026.
ADDRESSES:
Written comments and recommendations for this information collection should be submitted within 30 days of the publication of this notice on the following website,
www.reginfo.gov/public/do/PRAMain. Find this particular information collection by selecting “Currently under 30-day Review—Open for Public Comments” or by using the search function and entering either the title of the information collection or the OMB Control Number, 0651-0089. Do not submit Confidential Business Information or otherwise sensitive or protected information.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
This information collection request may be viewed atwww.reginfo.gov. Follow the instructions to view the Department of Commerce, USPTO information collections currently under review by OMB.
Abstract:
The fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.16(u) became effective January 17, 2024, and is due for any application filed under 35 U.S.C. 111 for an original patent—except design, plant, or provisional applications—where the specification, claims, and/or abstract do not conform to the USPTO requirements for submission in the DOCX format. Therefore, the fee is due for nonprovisional utility applications filed under 35 U.S.C. 111, including continuing applications, that are not filed in the DOCX format. See
Setting and Adjusting Patent Fees During Fiscal Year 2020, 85 FR 46932 (August 3, 2020).[1]
The USPTO continues to provide several resources to help applicants submit their applications in the DOCX format. The Patent Center and DOCX web pages contain many resources for applicants, such as FAQs and a training mode through which applicants may file test submissions to practice filing in DOCX.[2]
The USPTO also provides a Patent Center User Guide [3]
and a DOCX Intake in Patent Center Quick Start Guide [4]
to assist applicants in navigating the Patent Center system. The USPTO also provides free training sessions and videos demonstrating how to file DOCX documents in Patent Center.[5]
For one-on-one assistance, the USPTO's Patent Center Help Desk provides step-by-step guidance for submitting applications to the USPTO.
The items in this information collection relate solely to the impacts of the § 1.16(u) non-DOCX filing surcharge fee on the filing of nonprovisional utility applications under 35 U.S.C. 111, including continuing applications. In particular, this information collection accounts for the § 1.16(u) non-DOCX filing surcharge fee itself, as well as an additional 30 minutes of time to
( printed page 68496)
accommodate (i) extra review that some respondents might undertake when filing in the DOCX format and (ii) submissions of the back-up applicant-generated PDF that some respondents will opt to submit.
The estimated volumes for the items in this information collection are based on the estimates for the corresponding nonprovisional utility applications filed under 35 U.S.C. 111, including continuing applications, that are covered under another OMB clearance 0651-0032 (Initial Patent Applications). Respondents for the items in this information collection will either take an extra 0.50 hours (30 minutes) to file their applications in DOCX format or they will pay the non-DOCX surcharge but will not do both.
Forms:
None.
Type of Review:
Extension and revision of a currently approved information collection.
Affected Public:
Private sector.
Respondent's Obligation:
Required to obtain or retain benefits.
Frequency:
On occasion.
Estimated Number of Annual Respondents:
364,999 respondents (including 27,156 respondents from filing fees).
Estimated Number of Annual Responses:
364,999 responses (including 27,156 responses from filing fees).
Estimated Time per Response:
The USPTO estimates that the responses in this information collection will take the public approximately 30 minutes (0.50 hours) to complete. This includes the time to gather the necessary information, create the document, and submit the completed item to the USPTO.
Estimated Total Annual Respondent Burden Hours:
168,922 hours.
Estimated Total Annual Respondent Non-hourly Cost Burden:
$8,472,290.
Justin Isaac,
Information Collections Officer, Office of the Chief Administrative Officer, United States Patent and Trademark Office.
Use this for formal legal and research references to the published document.
91 FR 68495
Web Citation
Suggested Web Citation
Use this when citing the archival web version of the document.
“Agency Information Collection Activities; Submission to the Office of Management and Budget for Review and Approval; Comment Request; DOCX Submission Requirements,” thefederalregister.org (October 30, 2026), https://thefederalregister.org/documents/2026-22193/agency-information-collection-activities-submission-to-the-office-of-management-and-budget-for-review-and-approval-comme.
www.reginfo.gov/public/do/PRAMain
37 CFR 1.16(u)
35 U.S.C. 111
www.uspto.gov/patents/apply/patent-center