Patent Office Seeks Comments on its Plan to Review Significant Regulations
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office is requesting comments to assist it in developing a plan to identify which of its existing significant regulations should be reviewed and improved, pursuant to Executive Order 13563, "Improving Regulation and Regulatory Review."1
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Comments are due by April 21, 2011.
Info to Help Timely Examinations of Patent/Trademark Applications, IP Policy, Etc.
USPTO is preparing a preliminary plan to review its existing significant regulations to determine whether any of these regulations should be modified, streamlined, expanded, or repealed in order to make the USPTO's regulatory program more effective and less burdensome. USPTO states that more effective and less burdensome regulations would help it foster innovation and competitiveness by providing high quality and timely examination of patent and trademark applications, guiding domestic and international intellectual property policy, and delivering intellectual property information and education worldwide.
Comments Requested on Which Regs Should be Reviewed & Improved
USPTO is asking the public to provide comments on how such a plan should be developed, what such a plan should include, which significant regulations should be reviewed, and how those regulations might be improved. USPTO recognizes that the intellectual property community and the public in general will have useful information and opinions about how USPTO regulations can be reviewed and improved in order to best achieve its mission of promoting innovation and competition.
USPTO Seeks Answers to Specific Questions to Develop Preliminary Plan
USPTO provides the following list of questions, the answers to which will assist USPTO develop a plan to review its significant regulations, and is not intended to be exhaustive or to bind USPTO to any further actions related to comments:
- What is the best way for USPTO to identify which of its significant regulations should be modified, streamlined, expanded, or repealed? What process should USPTO use to select rules for review and how should it prioritize such review?
- What can USPTO, relative to its regulation process, do to reduce burdens and maintain flexibility for the public while promoting its missions?
- How can USPTO ensure that its significant regulations promote innovation and competition in the most effective and least burdensome way? How can these USPTO regulations be improved to accomplish this?
- Are there USPTO regulations that conflict with, or are duplicative of, regulations from other agencies? If so, please identify any such rules and provide any suggestions you might have for how this conflict or duplication can be resolved in order to help USPTO achieve its mission more effectively.
- How can USPTO best encourage public participation in its rule making process? How can USPTO best provide a forum for the open exchange of ideas among USPTO, the intellectual property community, and the public in general?
1EO 13563 directs each federal agency to develop a preliminary plan, consistent with law and its resources and regulatory priorities, under which the agency will periodically review its existing significant regulations to determine whether such regulations should be modified, streamlined, expanded or repealed to make the agency’s regulatory program more effective and or less burdensome in achieving its regulatory objectives. (See ITT’s Online Archives or 01/19/11 news, 11011915, for BP summary.)
USPTO Contact- Nicolas Oettinger (571) 272-7832