85 Patent Practitioners, Comment letter to OMB, Control Number 0651-0012 30-day notice, <i>Admission to Practice and Roster of Registered Patent Attorneys and Agents Admitted to Practice Before the PTO</i> (Mar. 28, 2021)

Abstract

OMB should approve PTO's request for Control Number 0651-0012, subject to terms of clearance that approve only status quo ante collections of information. In August and October of 2020, the PTO issued two new collections of information without statutory procedure: one by guidance, one by a new regulation dropped into a final rule without an NPRM, neither with any of the antecedent procedure required by the Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA), OIRA’s Information Collection regulations, or Executive Order 12866. The new regulation and proposed guidance document propose that the PTO intends to (1) collect information regarding continuing legal education for patent practitioners, in the form of (2) a required biennial practitioner registration statement. The information gathering burden of these two collections of information is currently in full effect, even though first submission to the agency won’t be required until March 1, 2022, and even though the PTO’s Supporting Statement admits the PTO has no clearance. OIRA should disallow these new collections of information. These collections are already creating substantial annual paperwork burden. We observe that the PTO’s Supporting Statement estimates the burden for these collections to be only $1.6 million, but as demonstrated herein and in 60-day and rulemaking comments, this number is far too low. Estimates of burden range from $120 to $150 million annually. None of the three relevant Federal Register notices proposed burden estimates, and none requested comment as required by 44 U.S.C. § 3506(c)(2)(A).