The Information Triage Unit (ITU), for which Export Enforcement (EE) provides the majority of intelligence product outputs, drafts bona fides information reports on foreign transaction parties to license applications. The reports are requested at the direction of a licensing officer or may be self-selected by EE. EE must, within the established Executive Order (EO) timeframe, complete such reports in 10 days from referral to enable timely interagency review of license applications. This metric is designed to measure the effectiveness of BIS in meeting the target of completing 90% of ITU reports produced by EE within 10 days of referral.

This performance indicator captures the number of Export Enforcement deterrence actions, cases resulting in a prevention of a violation, criminal or administrative actions, and administrative settlement orders. The number will reflect the actual number and type of preventive enforcement actions conducted, including: detentions of suspect exports, seizures of unauthorized shipments, industry outreach, issuance of warning letters, recommended denials of license applications based on enforcement concerns, and recommendations for parties to be added to the Entity List and Unverified List.

This indicator provides the number of successful case conclusions (usually barriers removed) in trade agreements compliance cases. The measure tends to fluctuate over time as the outcome (foreign governments agreeing to voluntarily honor trade agreement obligations) is dependent on actions by sovereign nations outside of direct United States Government control.

This measure reflects the timeliness of the first office action as measured from the date of application filing (or notification date for 66(a) filings) to the first office action in months.

The Chemical Weapon Convention (CWC) establishes a verification regime (e.g., declaration requirements, on-site inspections, and trade restrictions) for weapons-related toxic chemicals and precursors that have peaceful applications. BIS CWC regulations require a U.S. industry exceeding certain chemical activity thresholds to submit declarations and reports. BIS processes, validates, and aggregates the declarations and reports, to develop the U.S. CWC Industrial Declaration, which is forwarded to the State Department, within time frames mandated under the CWC, and to submit it to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW).

This measure is the percentage of evaluations exceeding the statutory requirement decision making conducted on a random sample of applications that received a first office action regarding registrability under the Trademark Act.

Patent Term Adjustment (PTA) was established by the American Inventors Protection Act of 1999 and provides for day-for-day adjustment of patent term (i.e., the period of time a patent is in force) for certain USPTO administrative delays (“the 14-4-4-4-36 timeframes”) for certain patent applications.  The specified timeframes are to:  issue an Office Action within 14 months after application filing, respond to a reply or appeal within four months, act on the application within four months after a decision from the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) or from a Federal court, and issue the patent within four months after payment of the issue fee. Additionally, a 36-month timeframe applies if the USPTO does not issue a patent within three years of the filing date or national stage commencement, with certain exceptions.  Further, time consumed by interference or derivation proceedings, delays caused by placing the application under a secrecy order under 35 U.S.C. 181, or time consumed by a successful appellate review may result in positive patent term adjustment (PTA). Any positive PTA is offset by any period that an applicant failed to engage in reasonable efforts to conclude prosecution. This measure reports the PTA for all mailed actions.

This measure is the percentage of applications reviewed meeting the criteria for decision making conducted on random sample of applications including first office actions to determine the soundness of decision-making under the Trademark Act.

Patent Term Adjustment (PTA) was established by the American Inventors Protection Act of 1999 and provides for day-for-day adjustment of patent term (i.e., the period of time a patent is in force) for certain USPTO administrative delays (“the 14-4-4-4-36 timeframes”) for certain patent applications.  The specified timeframes are to:  issue an Office Action within 14 months after application filing, respond to a reply or appeal within four months, act on the application within four months after a decision from the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) or from a Federal court, and issue the patent within four months after payment of the issue fee. Additionally, a 36-month timeframe applies if the USPTO does not issue a patent within three years of the filing date or national stage commencement, with certain exceptions.  Further, time consumed by interference or derivation proceedings, delays caused by placing the application under a secrecy order under 35 U.S.C. 181, or time consumed by a successful appellate review may result in positive patent term adjustment (PTA). Any positive PTA is offset by any period that an applicant failed to engage in reasonable efforts to conclude prosecution. This measure reports the PTA for all remaining inventory.

This measure reflects the timeliness of the first office action as measured from the date of application filing (or notification date for 66(a) filings) to the first office action in months.