Please note that the OMB number and expiration date may not have been determined when this Information Collection Request and associated Information Collection forms were submitted to OMB. The approved OMB number and expiration date may be found by clicking on the Notice of Action link below.

View ICR - OIRA Conclusion

OMB Control No: 0651-0032	ICR Reference No: 201009-0651-002
Status: Historical Active	Previous ICR Reference No: 200702-0651-008
Agency/Subagency: DOC/PTO	Agency Tracking No:
Title: Initial Patent Applications
Type of Information Collection: Revision of a currently approved collection	Common Form ICR: No
Type of Review Request: Regular
OIRA Conclusion Action: Approved with change	Conclusion Date: 01/18/2011
Retrieve Notice of Action (NOA)	Date Received in OIRA: 09/30/2010
Terms of Clearance: Before the next renewal of this collection PTO should conduct outreach to stakeholders regarding the burden of the Initial Patent Applications collection and ways to potentially reduce it and include the results of this outreach in the next ICR submission for review.

	Inventory as of this Action	Requested	Previously Approved
Expiration Date	01/31/2014	36 Months From Approved	01/31/2011
Responses	513,221	0	543,591
Time Burden (Hours)	11,553,888	0	10,677,624
Cost Burden (Dollars)	772,798,833	0	243,201,076

ICR Summary of Burden

	Total Approved	Previously Approved	Change Due to Agency Discretion	Change Due to Adjustment in Estimate
Annual Number of Responses	513,221	543,591	65,850	-96,220
Annual Time Burden (Hours)	11,553,888	10,677,624	327,841	548,423
Annual Cost Burden (Dollars)	772,798,833	243,201,076	101,572,312	428,025,445

Burden increases because of Program Change due to Agency Discretion: Yes

Burden Increase Due to: Miscellaneous Actions

Burden decreases because of Program Change due to Agency Discretion: No

Burden Reduction Due to:

Short Statement: The USPTO estimates that the burden hours for this collection will increase by 876,264 hours per year, but that the total responses will decrease by 30,370 responses per year. New electronic submissions for the design continued prosecution applications, the continuation/divisional of an international application, continuation/divisional applications, and the continuation-in-part applications, in addition to papers filed under 37 CFR 1.41, 1.48, and 1.53, have been added into the collection as part of this renewal. These new submissions, however, are offset by an overall reduction in filings. Despite the reduction in responses, the total burden hours have increased due to new estimated completion times for many of the applications and the new items being added into the collection. The USPTO estimates that the annual (non-hour) costs for this collection will increase by $81,650,975 per year as a result of the new items and increases in the fees. The currently approved burden for this collection is 543,591 responses, 10,677,624 burden hours, and $691,147,858 ($243,201,076) in annual (non-hour) costs. The USPTO estimates that this renewal will have 513,221 responses, 11.553,888 burden hours, and $772,798,833 in annual (non-hour) costs. This is a decrease of 30,370 responses, but an increase of 876,264 burden hours and $81,650,975 in annual (non-hour) costs.