The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) is required by 35 U.S.C. 131 et seq. to examine an application for patent and, when
appropriate, issue a patent. The provisions of 35 U.S.C. 301 and 37 CFR 1.501 govern the ability of a person to submit into the file of an issued patent (i) prior art consisting of patents or printed publications which that person believes to have a bearing on the patentability of any claim of a patent and (ii) written statements of a patent owner filed in a proceeding before a Federal court or the USPTO in which the patent owner took a position on the scope of any claim of the patent.
The information in this collection can be submitted electronically through EFS-Web, the USPTO's web-based electronic filing system, as well as on paper. The USPTO therefore accounts for both electronic and paper submissions in this collection.
On behalf of this Federal agency, I certify that the collection of information encompassed by this request complies with 5 CFR 1320.9 and the related provisions of 5 CFR 1320.8(b)(3).
The following is a summary of the topics, regarding the proposed collection of information, that the certification covers:
(i) Why the information is being collected;
(ii) Use of information;
(iii) Burden estimate;
(iv) Nature of response (voluntary, required for a benefit, or mandatory);
(v) Nature and extent of confidentiality; and
(vi) Need to display currently valid OMB control number;
If you are unable to certify compliance with any of these provisions, identify the item by leaving the box unchecked and explain the reason in the Supporting Statement.