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Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 169 / Friday, September 3, 2021 / Notices
internet, please contact the USPTO
using the contact information below for special instructions regarding how to submit comments by other means.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
Courtney L. Stopp, Office of Policy and International Affairs, USPTO, at Courtney.Stopp@uspto.gov or 571272
9300. Please direct media inquiries to the USPTOs Office of the Chief Communications Officer at 571272
8400.
At the request of Senators Tillis, Hirono, Cotton, and Coons, the USPTO is conducting a study on the current state of patent eligibility jurisprudence in the United States and on how that jurisprudence has impacted investment and innovation. On July 9, 2021, the USPTO published a request for information, seeking public input to assist in the preparation of that study.
See Patent Eligibility Jurisprudence Study, 86 FR 36257 Jul. 9, 2021. The notice requested public comments by September 7, 2021.
Through this notice, the USPTO is extending the period for public comment until October 15, 2021, to give interested members of the public additional time to submit comments. All other information and instructions to commenters provided in the July 9, 2021, notice remain unchanged.
Previously submitted comments do not need to be resubmitted.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Andrew Hirshfeld, Commissioner for Patents, Performing the Functions and Duties of the Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
FR Doc. 202119112 Filed 9221; 8:45 am BILLING CODE 351016P

DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
Patent and Trademark Office Docket No.: PTOP20210037

Modification of COVID19 Prioritized Examination Pilot Program United States Patent and Trademark Office, Department of Commerce.
ACTION: Notice.
AGENCY:

The United States Patent and Trademark Office USPTO or Office is modifying the COVID19 Prioritized Examination Pilot Program to accept applications until December 31, 2021.
Requests that are compliant with the pilot programs requirements and are filed on or before December 31, 2021,
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SUMMARY:

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will be accepted, even if more than 500
requests have already been approved.
The USPTO will evaluate whether to terminate or further extend the program during this extension.
DATES: The COVID19 Prioritized Examination Pilot Program is modified as of September 3, 2021 and is extended to run until December 31, 2021.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
Robert A. Clarke, Editor of the Manual of Patent Examining Procedure MPEP
telephone at 5712727735; email at robert.clarke@uspto.gov.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: On May 14, 2020, the USPTO published a notice for the implementation of the COVID19
Prioritized Examination Pilot Program.
See COVID19 Prioritized Examination Pilot Program, 85 FR 28932 May 14, 2020 COVID19 Track One Notice.
The COVID19 Track One Notice indicated that an applicant may request prioritized examination without payment of the prioritized examination fee and associated processing fee if: 1
The applications claims covered a product or process related to COVID19, 2 the product or process was subject to an applicable Food and Drug Administration FDA approval for COVID19 use, and 3 the applicant met other requirements given in the COVID19 Track One Notice. As of August 2, 2021, 120 patents have issued from applications granted prioritized status under the pilot program. The average total pendency, including time consumed by continued examination, from filing to issue for those applications was 249 days. The shortest pendency from filing date to issue date for those applications was 75 days.
The COVID19 Track One Notice indicated that the pilot program would expire after the USPTO accepted 500
applications into the program. As of August 16, 2021, the USPTO had accepted 476 applications into the program, and there were 52 requests to participate that had not yet been acted upon. To ensure that applicants are not refused access to the pilot program due to delays in the USPTOs consideration of the requests to participate, the USPTO is modifying the program to consider on the merits any request filed on or before December 31, 2021, even if an applicants request to participate is not acted upon until after the USPTO
has accepted 500 requests. The USPTO
will evaluate whether to terminate or further extend the program during this extension. If the USPTO determines that a further extension of the pilot program is appropriate, the USPTO will publish a subsequent notice further extending the program.

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Unless the pilot program is further extended by a subsequent notice to the public, following the expiration of this extension, the pilot program will be terminated, and applicants may instead seek to use the Prioritized Examination Track One Program. Applications accorded prioritized examination under the pilot program will not lose that status merely because the application is pending after the date the pilot program is terminated. In other words, applications accepted into the pilot program will continue to be examined under prioritized examination status until that status is terminated for one or more reasons, as described in the COVID19 Track One Notice.
The Prioritized Examination Track One Program permits an applicant to have an application advanced out of turn accorded special status for examination under 37 CFR 1.102e if the applicant timely files a request for prioritized Track One examination accompanied by the appropriate fees and meets the other conditions of 37
CFR 1.102e. See MPEP 708.02b2.
The current fee schedule is available at:
www.uspto.gov/learning-and-resources/
fees-and-payment/uspto-fee-schedule.
The Track One Program does not have the restrictions of the COVID19 Track One Program on the types of inventions for which special status may be sought, as the Track One Program does not require a connection to any particular technology. Moreover, delays associated with the determination of whether an application presents a claim that covers a product or process related to COVID
19 and whether the product or process was subject to an applicable FDA
approval for COVID19 use will be avoided under the Track One Program.
Andrew Hirshfeld, Commissioner for Patents, Performing the Functions and Duties of the Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
FR Doc. 202119114 Filed 9221; 8:45 am BILLING CODE 351016P

COMMITTEE FOR PURCHASE FROM
PEOPLE WHO ARE BLIND OR
SEVERELY DISABLED
Procurement List; Additions and Deletions Committee for Purchase From People Who Are Blind or Severely Disabled.
ACTION: Additions to and deletions from the Procurement List.
AGENCY:

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