📈USPTO Finalizes Trademark Fee Adjustments for FY 2025
The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) is correcting nonsubstantive errors in the preamble and regulatory text of a final rule that appeared in the Federal Register on November 18, 2024. That final rule set or adjusted trademark fees as authorized by the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act (AIA), as amended by the Study of Underrepresented Classes Chasing Engineering and Science Success Act of 2018 (SUCCESS Act). This action is necessary to address potential confusion for impacted entities that could result if these errors are not corrected. These corrections do not result in any substantive changes to the final rule.
Learn More🌿Notice of Incidental Take Permit Application for Skink Species
We, the Fish and Wildlife Service (Service), announce receipt of an application from ADH Rollins Court, LLC (applicant) for an incidental take permit (ITP) under the Endangered Species Act. The applicant requests the ITP to take the federally listed sand skink (Plestiodon reynoldsi) and blue-tailed mole skink (Eumeces egregius lividus) incidental to the construction of a residential development in Polk County, Florida. We request public comment on the application, which includes the applicant's proposed habitat conservation plan (HCP), and on the Service's preliminary determination that the proposed permitting action may be eligible for a categorical exclusion pursuant to the Council on Environmental Quality's National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) regulations, the Department of the Interior's (DOI) NEPA regulations, and the DOI Departmental Manual. To make this preliminary determination, we prepared a draft environmental action statement and low-effect screening form, both of which are also available for public review. We invite comment from the public and local, State, Tribal, and Federal agencies.
Learn More🌊Nominations Open for Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Advisory Committee
The Department of the Interior is soliciting nominations for the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Public Advisory Committee (Committee). This Committee advises the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Trustee Council on decisions related to the planning, evaluation, allocation of funds, and conduct of injury assessment and restoration activities related to the T/V Exxon Valdez oil spill of March 1989.
Learn More🌍Stakeholder Engagement Opportunity in ENERGY STAR Products Program
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is announcing an opportunity for public input on ENERGY STAR product specification development activities. Since its creation in 1992, the ENERGY STAR program has grown to designate highly efficient products in more than 75 categories, all of which are independently certified. EPA relies on broad stakeholder engagement to develop and maintain its ENERGY STAR product specifications and grow and evolve the products portfolio. Through its products work, the Agency also looks for innovative ways to accelerate market movement to greater efficiency.
Learn More⚖️Circumvention Inquiry on Steel Wire Mesh Imports from Mexico Initiated
In response to requests from Keysteel Corp., Mid-South Wire Company, National Wire LLC, Oklahoma Steel & Wire Co., and Wire Mesh Corp. (collectively, the requesters), the U.S. Department of Commerce (Commerce) is initiating a country-wide circumvention inquiry to determine whether standard steel welded wire mesh (wire mesh) from Mexico, which is completed in the United States from low-carbon steel wire produced in Mexico, is circumventing the antidumping duty (AD) and countervailing duty (CVD) orders on wire mesh from Mexico.
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