USPTO has sent KEI a letter, rejecting our request for a fee waiver for processing a September 30, 2009, freedom of information Act (FOIA) request. The FOIA focused on these items:
KEI requests all documents that have been prepared or received by the USPTO on the topic of a proposal for a WIPO treaty dealing with reading disabilities. This would include but not be limited to position papers, analysis, and communications with members of congress, private sector publishers or their representatives, delegates and staff of WIPO, and communications with other federal agencies.
KEI also requests that same documents that relate to the so called WIPO “Stakeholders Platform,” which was organized in 2008.
Among the communications likely to be of interest are those involving:Tarja Koskinen-Olsson or anyone from the International Federation of Reproduction Rights Organisations’ (IFRRO),
Jens Bammel of the International Publishers Association
Ted Shapiro
Bradley Silver, of Time WarnerAny instructions given to geneva representatives to brief WIPO delegates
USPTO will not process the FOIA unless we send an initial fee of $715. The grounds for denying the request for a fee waiver that KEI fails to show:
(1) the ability to disseminate the requested infromation to the public at large; and
(2) how disclosure of the requested information is likely to contribute significantly to public understanding of USPTO operations or activities.
We will appeal the denial of our fee request. In the meantime, USPTO will not process our FOIA request.