The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) 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 (44 U.S.C. Chapter 35).
Separate from the extension provisions of 35 U.S.C. 156, the USPTO may in some cases extend the term of an original patent due to certain delays in the prosecution of the patent application, including delays caused by interference proceedings, secrecy orders, or appellate review by the Board of Patent Appeals and Interferences or a Federal court in which the patent is issued pursuant to a decision reversing an adverse determination of patentability. The patent term provisions of 35 U.S.C. 154(b), as amended by Title IV, Subtitle D of the Intellectual Property and Communications Omnibus Reform Act of 1999, require the USPTO to notify the applicant of the patent term adjustment in the notice of allowance and give the applicant an opportunity to request reconsideration of the USPTO's patent term adjustment determination. The USPTO administers 35 U.S.C. 154 through 37 CFR 1.701–1.705.
The public uses this information collection to file requests related to patent term extensions and reconsideration or reinstatement of patent term adjustments. The information in this collection is used by the USPTO to consider whether an applicant is eligible for a patent term extension or reconsideration of a patent term adjustment and, if so, to determine the length of the patent term extension or adjustment.
Once submitted, the request will be publicly available in electronic format through the Information Collection Review page at
Paper copies can be obtained by:
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Written comments and recommendations for the proposed information collection should be sent on or before August 12, 2010 to Nicholas A. Fraser, OMB Desk Officer, via e-mail to