SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Title: Response to Office Action and Voluntary Amendment Forms.

OMB Control Number: 0651-0050.

Abstract: This collection of information is required by the Trademark Act (Act), 15 U.S.C. 1051 et seq., which provides for the registration of trademarks, service marks, collective trademark and service marks, collective membership marks, and certification marks. Individuals and businesses that use or intend to use such marks in commerce may file an application to register their marks with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). This information collection generally contains information that is not submitted with the initial trademark application but is associated with, or required for, the USPTO review of applications for registration.

In some instances, the USPTO issues Office actions to applicants who have applied to register a mark, or to request information that was not provided with the initial submission but is required before the issuance of a registration. Also, the USPTO may determine that a mark is not entitled to registration, pursuant to one or more provisions of the Act. In such cases, the USPTO will issue an Office action advising the applicant of the refusal to register the mark. Applicants respond to these Office actions by providing the required information and/or by advancing legal arguments as to why the refusal of registration should be withdrawn.

The USPTO administers the Act through Title 37 of the Code of Federal Regulations. These rules allow the USPTO to request and receive information required to process applications. These rules also allow applicants to submit certain amendments to their applications.

Applicants may also supplement their applications and provide additional information by filing a Voluntary Amendment Not in Response to USPTO Office Action/Letter, a Request for Reconsideration after Final Action, a Post-Approval/Publication/Post-Notice of Allowance (NOA) Amendment, a Response to Suspension Inquiry or Letter of Suspension, or a Request for Extension of Time to File a Response.

Since the publication of the 60-day notice, the USPTO has updated the number of responses associated with ( printed page 72533) this information collection to remove the PTO-1772 form (Petition to Amend Basis Post-Publication). As the PTO-1772 form is no longer in use, filers will instead use the PTO-2301 form (Petition to Director), which is covered in information collection 0651-0061 (Trademark Petitions). For information collection 0651-0050, this action results in a decrease of 1,600 respondents and responses, 928 burden hours, and $640,100 in non-hourly costs from the previous notice.

Forms:

• PTO-1771 (Post-Approval/Publication/Post-Notice of Allowance (NOA) Amendment)
• PTO-1822 (Response to Suspension Inquiry or Letter of Suspension)
• PTO-1957 (Response to Office Action)
• PTO-1960 (Request for Reconsideration after Final Action)
• PTO-1966 (Voluntary Amendment Form)
• PTO-2313 (Request for Extension of Time to File a Response)

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: 430,300 respondents.

Estimated Number of Annual Responses: 430,300 responses.

Estimated Time per Response: The USPTO estimates that the responses in this information collection will take the public approximately 5 minutes (0.08 hours) to 50 minutes (0.83 hours) to complete. This includes the time to gather the necessary information, create the document, and submit the completed item(s) to the USPTO.

Estimated Total Annual Respondent Burden Hours: 309,034 hours.

Estimated Total Annual Respondent Non-hourly Cost Burden: $28,176,590.

91 FR 72532