37 CFR - Patents, Trademarks, and Copyrights

The U.S. Copyright Office is building a new registration system to meet the demands of the digital age. As the Office develops a new technological infrastructure for this system, it is considering several legal and policy changes to improve user experience, increase Office efficiency, and decrease processing times. The Office is seeking public comment to inform its decisions on how to improve the regulations and practices related to the registration of copyright claims.

The U.S. Copyright Office is establishing a rule to codify its procedures for closing royalty payments accounts under section 1005 of the Copyright Act, and is amending its regulations governing online payment procedures for statutory licensing statements of account to no longer require that payments for these accounts be made in a single lump sum. These changes are intended to improve the efficiency of the Copyright Office's Licensing Division operations.

The United States Patent and Trademark Office (“USPTO” or “Office”) revises the claim construction standard for interpreting claims in inter partes review (“IPR”), post-grant review (“PGR”), and the transitional program for covered business method patents (“CBM”) proceedings before the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (“PTAB” or “Board”). In particular, the Office is replacing the broadest reasonable interpretation (“BRI”) standard such that claims shall now be construed using the same claim construction standard that is used to construe the claim in a civil action in federal district court. This rule reflects that the PTAB in an AIA proceeding will apply the same standard applied in federal courts to construe patent claims. The Office also amends the rules to add that any prior claim construction determination concerning a term of the claim in a civil action, or a proceeding before the International Trade Commission (“ITC”), that is timely made of record in an IPR, PGR, or CBM proceeding will be considered.

The Copyright Royalty Judges (Judges) are correcting one of the references to a docket number in a proposed rule that appeared in the Federal Register on July 30, 2018, and are reopening for an additional fourteen days the period for comments on modified proposed regulations to require affected cable systems to pay a separate per-telecast royalty (a Sports Surcharge) in addition to the other royalties that those cable systems must pay under Section 111 of the Copyright Act.

The Copyright Royalty Judges (Judges) publish for comment modified proposed regulations to require affected cable systems to pay a separate per-telecast royalty (a Sports Surcharge) in addition to the other royalties that those cable systems must pay under Section 111 of the Copyright Act.

The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO or Office) amends the Rules of Practice in Trademark Cases to remove the rules governing trademark interferences. This rule arises out of the USPTO's work during FY 2017 to identify and propose regulations for removal, modification, and streamlining because they are outdated, unnecessary, ineffective, costly, or unduly burdensome on the agency or the private sector. The revisions put into effect the work the USPTO has done, in part through its participation in the Regulatory Reform Task Force (Task Force) established by the Department of Commerce (Department or Commerce) pursuant to Executive Order 13777, to review and identify regulations that are candidates for removal.

The Copyright Office is proposing to establish a regulation regarding its procedures for closing out royalty payments accounts under section 1005, and updating its regulations governing online payment procedures for cable, satellite, and digital audio recording technology (“DART”) statements of account to no longer require that payments be made in a single lump sum. These amendments are intended to improve the efficiency of the Copyright Office's Licensing Division operations.

The Copyright Office is extending the deadline for the submission of written comments in response to its May 24, 2018 notice of proposed rulemaking proposing the adoption of a new fee schedule.

The United States Copyright Office is extending the deadlines for the submission of written comments in response to its December 1, 2017 notice of proposed rulemaking concerning the royalty reporting practices of cable operators under section 111 and proposed revisions to the Statement of Account forms, and on proposed amendments to the Statement of Account filing requirements.

The U.S. Copyright Office is amending its regulation governing the deposit of published copies or phonorecords for the Library of Congress to correct an inadvertent error.

The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO or Office) proposes to amend the Rules of Practice in Trademark Cases and the Rules of Practice in Filings Pursuant to the Protocol Relating to the Madrid Agreement Concerning the International Registration of Marks to mandate electronic filing of trademark applications and submissions associated with trademark applications and registrations, and to require the designation of an email address for receiving USPTO correspondence. This proposed rule would further advance the USPTO's IT strategy to achieve complete end-to-end electronic processing of trademark-related submissions, thereby improving administrative efficiency by facilitating electronic file management, optimizing workflow processes, and reducing processing errors.

The Copyright Office is proposing the adoption of a new fee schedule. The proposed fees would help the Office recover a significant part, though not the whole, of its costs. The Office is providing an opportunity to the public to comment on the proposed changes before it submits the fee schedule to Congress.

The U.S. Copyright Office is further extending the deadline for the submission of written comments in response to its April 16, 2018 notice of proposed rulemaking, regarding revisions to its regulations to finalize a 2010 interim rule regarding mandatory deposit of electronic-only works, and to make electronic-only books published in the United States subject to the mandatory deposit requirements if they are affirmatively demanded by the Office.

The United States Patent and Trademark Office (“USPTO” or “Office”) proposes changes to the claim construction standard for interpreting claims in inter partes review (“IPR”), post-grant review (“PGR”), and the transitional program for covered business method patents (“CBM”) proceedings before the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (“PTAB” or “Board”). In particular, the Office proposes to replace the broadest reasonable interpretation (“BRI”) standard for construing unexpired patent claims and proposed claims in these trial proceedings with a standard that is the same as the standard applied in federal district courts and International Trade Commission (“ITC”) proceedings. The Office also proposes to amend the rules to add that the Office will consider any prior claim construction determination concerning a term of the involved claim in a civil action, or an ITC proceeding, that is timely made of record in an IPR, PGR, or CBM proceeding.

Section 407 of the Copyright Act requires the mandatory deposit with the Copyright Office (“Office”) of all works published in the United States, within three months of publication, for use by the Library of Congress (“Library”). The Office is allowed to exclude certain classes of works from this requirement. In a 2010 interim rule, the Office codified its longstanding practice of excluding from the mandatory deposit requirements all electronic works that are not otherwise available in a physical format ( i.e., “electronic works published in the United States and available only online.”). The 2010 interim rule created one exception to this general rule for electronic-only serials, which are subject to mandatory deposit, if they are published in the United States and if they are affirmatively demanded by the Office. On May 17, 2016, the Office published a Notice of Inquiry seeking public comment on potential regulatory changes that would make the interim rule final and would make electronic-only books and sound recordings subject to mandatory deposit requirements by way of the same demand process. Based on the responses to the NOI and input from the Library, the Office proposes revising its regulations to make the interim rule final, and to make electronic-only books published in the United States subject to the mandatory deposit requirements if they are affirmatively demanded by the Office. The proposed rule does not address mandatory deposit of electronic-only sound recordings.

This final rule reduces regulatory burdens by clarifying electronic reporting, updating certain sections to conform with changes in the patent laws, and streamlining the licensing application process for some Federal laboratory collaborators, makes technical corrections, clarifies the role of provisional patent application filing, explains a unique situation that may be appropriate for a Determination of Exceptional Circumstances, clarifies the role of funding agencies in the Bayh-Dole process, and addresses subject inventions as to which a Federal laboratory employee is a co-inventor.

The United States Copyright Office is extending the deadlines for the submission of written comments in response to its December 1, 2017 notice of proposed rulemaking concerning the royalty reporting practices of cable operators under section 111 and proposed revisions to the Statement of Account forms, and on proposed amendments to the Statement of Account filing requirements.

On December 16, 2017, the U.S. Copyright Office released a new version of the Single Application, an online registration option that allows a single author to register a claim in one work that is solely owned by the same author and is not a work made for hire. The new Single Application includes enhanced features that should improve the user experience, increase the efficiency of the examination, and reduce the correspondence rate for these types of claims. To coincide with these technical upgrades, the Office is now proposing to amend its regulations to clarify the eligibility requirements for the Single Application, and codify certain practices set forth in the Compendium of U.S. Copyright Office Practices, Third Edition . In addition, the proposed rule confirms that the Single Application may be used to register one sound recording and one musical work, literary work, or dramatic work—notwithstanding the fact that a sound recording and the work embodied in that recording are separate works. The proposed rule will also clarify the eligibility requirements for the Office's Standard Application, which is used to register certain works that are ineligible for the Single Application, such as works with more than one owner. In addition, the proposed rule will eliminate the “short form” version of the Office's paper applications, and make technical amendments to the regulations governing preregistration, architectural works, mask works, vessel designs, the unit of publication registration option, and the group registration option for database updates. The proposed rule will also allow for paper applications to be certified with a typed or printed signature by removing the requirement that the certification must include a “handwritten” signature of the certifying party.

The United States Copyright Office will be holding public hearings as part of the seventh triennial rulemaking proceeding under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (“DMCA”) concerning possible exemptions to the DMCA's prohibition against circumvention of technological measures that control access to copyrighted works. The public hearings will be held in April 2018 in Washington, DC and Los Angeles. Parties interested in testifying at the public hearings are invited to submit requests to testify pursuant to the instructions set forth below.

The U.S. Copyright Office is amending its regulation governing the group registration option for newspapers. The final rule will make a number of changes to reflect current Office practices, improve the efficiency of the registration process, and encourage broader participation in the registration system by reducing the burden on applicants. Specifically, the final rule revises the definition of “newspaper issues” and clarifies that the group registration option may be used to register any qualifying “newspaper issue.” The final rule will also require applicants to file an online application rather than a paper application, and upload a complete digital copy of each issue through the Office's electronic registration system instead of submitting them in physical form. Digital copies of newspapers received by the Office under this group registration option will be offered to the Library of Congress for use in its collections, and the Library intends to provide public access to these digital files, subject to the restrictions set forth in the final rule. Applicants may continue to submit their issues on microfilm on a voluntary basis (in addition to and at the same time as submitting digital files) if the microfilm is received by December 31, 2019. After that date, the microfilm option will be eliminated. The final rule clarifies that each issue in the group must be a new collective work and a work made for hire, that the author and copyright claimant for each issue must be the same person or organization, and that the claim must be received within three months after the publication of the earliest issue in the group. Finally, the rule confirms that a group registration covers each issue in the group, as well as any contributions appearing within each issue if they are fully owned by the copyright claimant and if they were first published in those issues.

The U.S. Copyright Office is modernizing its practices to increase the efficiency of the group registration option for photographs. This final rule modifies the procedure for registering groups of published photographs (GRPPH), and establishes a similar procedure for registering groups of unpublished photographs (GRUPH). Applicants will be required to use a new online application specifically designed for each option, instead of using a paper application, and will be allowed to include up to 750 photographs in each claim. The “unpublished collection” option (which allows an unlimited number of photographs to be registered with one application), and the “pilot program” (which allows an unlimited number of published photographs to be registered with the application designed for one work) will be eliminated. The corresponding “pilot program” for photographic databases will remain in effect for the time being. The final rule modernizes the deposit requirements by requiring applicants to submit their photographs in a digital format when using GRPPH, GRUPH, or the pilot program for photographic databases, along with a separate document containing a list of the titles and file names for each photograph. The final rule revises the eligibility requirements for GRPPH and GRUPH by providing that all the photographs must be created by the same “author” (a term that includes an employer or other person for whom a work is made for hire), and clarifying that they do not need to be created by the same photographer or published within the same country. It also confirms that a group registration issued under GRPHH or GRUPH covers each photograph in the group, each photograph is registered as a separate work, and the group as a whole is not considered a compilation or a collective work.

The United States Copyright Office is issuing a final rule, amending regulations that govern the deposit requirements for certain types of literary works and musical compositions. The final rule is adopted as proposed in the notice of proposed rulemaking, though the Office provides some clarification regarding the rule's application.

The U.S. Copyright Office is further extending the deadline for the submission of written comments in response to its June 12, 2017 and November 13, 2017 interim rules, regarding changes to the special procedure for examining secure tests, and the creation of a new group registration option for secure tests, respectively.

The United States Patent and Trademark Office published in the Federal Register on June 11, 2015 a final rule, which became effective on July 11, 2015, revising the Trademark Rules of Practice. This document reinstates three paragraphs, which were inadvertently deleted as a result of an error in the amendatory instructions.

The United States Copyright Office is extending the deadlines for the submission of written comments in response to its December 1, 2017 notice of proposed rulemaking concerning the royalty reporting practices of cable operators under section 111 and proposed revisions to the Statement of Account forms, and on proposed amendments to the Statement of Account filing requirements.

On December 1, 2017, the United States Copyright Office published a notice of proposed rulemaking and request for comments concerning the royalty reporting practices of cable operators under section 111 and proposed revisions to the Statement of Account forms, and on proposed amendments to the Statement of Account filing requirements. The Copyright Office has determined that reply comments would also be appropriate for this rulemaking. In addition, the Office has determined that informal ex-parte communications with interested parties might be beneficial, such as to discuss nuances of proposed regulatory language.