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Comments due on paperwork burden of Appeal Rule by 9 Aug 2008

By Lawrence B. Ebert, Esq.

David Boundy passed along information about a request for public comment on the Patent Office's estimates for paperwork burdens for the Appeal Rule, which note began:

The Patent Office recently published a Federal Register notice that is not publicized on any of the PTO's lists of Federal Register Notices. This continues the trend, now about two years old, of the Patent Office minimizing public participation in various intra-executive branch rulemaking oversight reviews by failing to give prominent notice of the opportunity for public comment.

IPBiz was not impressed by one of the earlier OMB analyses on proposed burdens. IPBiz does find the coverage of the Boundy information by OTHER blogs of some interest:

Patently-O noted: The PTO is asking whether these numbers are accurate under the newly finalized Appeal Brief rules. (This will impact whether the Whitehouse allows the new rules to be implemented). Comments are due by August 9, 2008, to Susan Fawcett (Susan.Fawcett@uspto.gov), who will in turn be required to provide them to OMB. (...) (For some unknown reason, the USPTO did not post information about this request for information from the public).

The coverage at the Patent Hawk blog began:

A recently published UPSTO Federal Register Notice regarding paperwork burdens for the proposed appeals rule change is oddly missing from all PTO lists of Federal Register Notices. The wafting scent is that this is something more than oversight, instead, a continuation of a two-year trend of failing to give sufficient notice of opportunity for public comment.

Full post as published by IPBiz on July 20, 2008 (boomark / email).