TRADEMARKS

In the past year, the trademark business has received recognition for excellence in three national competitions for its successful electronic filing system, TEAS, and its telecommuting program. Recognition at this level is evidence of the success of both of these programs and a significant accomplishment for the USPTO considering the level of competition and publicity these programs generate. While the USPTO is primarily concerned with how customers perceive TEAS, and how employees and the trademark business benefit from the electronic filing and telecommuting programs, it is pleased with the outside recognition it has received for its e-Government efforts.

In October 2000, the USPTO learned that the panel of judges for the 2000 Government Technology Leadership Awards had selected TEAS as one of its winners. For the last eight years, the Government Technology Leadership Awards program has celebrated successful U.S. government initiatives. By honoring meritorious projects and the teams responsible for them, the awards have sought to encourage innovation. The awards salute projects, large and small, that directly have aided the mission of their organizations by boosting efficiency and effectiveness, lowering costs, and/or improving service to the public through original uses of technology.

Each year as a cooperative academic-industry effort, the College of Business at Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) and USA TODAY host the Quality Cup Competition. This competition recognizes teams who have made significant contributions to the improvement of quality in their organizations. In March 2001, the TEAS program was awarded the finalist prize in the government category for the 2001 RIT/USA TODAY Quality Cup Competition.

On June 25, 2001, the USPTO hosted a ceremony to recognize the receipt of the 100,000th TEAS application, as filed by the General Electric Company. The 100,000th filing is a significant milestone in creation of an e-Government operation and confirmation of customer acceptance for electronic filing.

In August, the USPTO received the Commuter Connections Employer Recognition Award for its Trademark Work-at-Home (TWAH) telecommuting program. The award, sponsored by the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments, recognized the trademark business as one of four employers that have created a workplace where telecommuting produces a "smarter way to work."

Goal: Enhance the quality of our products and services

Examination quality was rated at 96.9 percent, based on standards for assessing the "clear error" rate, for determining the type of errors that could affect the registrability of a mark. The review of pending, registered, and abandoned files by the Office of Trademark Quality Review determined the overall error rate to be 4.5 percent for the year including deficient search strategies.

Result: Examination Quality

Measure: Reduce the error rate from 6 percent to 3 percent by FY 2004.

DATA VALIDATION AND VERIFICATION

• Data source: Office of Trademark Quality Review Report.
• Frequency: Daily input, monthly reporting.
• Data storage: Automated systems, reports.
• Verification: Manual reports and analysis.
• Data Limitations: None.

During the past year, the trademark business worked to establish a more consistent set of quality measures that would better reflect the current quality of examination for use beginning in FY 2002. The trademark business has initiated plans for the creation of a new set of measures for first action and current quality and to create the infrastructure needed to support incorporating the results of the reviews and improving the examination practice.

Results: Customer Satisfaction

Measure: Increase overall customer satisfaction from 70 percent to 80 percent by FY 2005.

DATA VALIDATION AND VERIFICATION

• Data source: Customer surveys.
• Frequency: Surveys are conducted and results are reported annually.
• Data storage: Paper files and contractor electronic files.
• Verification: Independent contractor develops data instrument, conducts survey and compiles results. Final test for reasonableness is performed internally.
• Data Limitations: None.

Results of the annual customer satisfaction survey indicate that, considering all customer experiences with the trademark process, 70 percent of trademark business customers report satisfaction with its service. This is a significant improvement of five percentage points from last year’s results. Customers who reported dissatisfaction dropped to a low of 13 percent.

Results that have the most significant impact on the level of satisfaction our customers report include:

• Clear written position of examining attorneys (improved two percentage points to 79 percent);
• Prompt referral to appropriate office or person within the organization (improved by four percentage points to 72 percent);
• Phone calls returned within one business day (improved by two percentage points to 55 percent);
• Resolution of problems within seven days (improved by one percentage point to 33 percent); and
• Mailing of filing receipts for paper-filed applications within 14 days (significantly improved by 16 percentage points, to 43 percent).

Overall, the trademark business received high marks for its quality improvement initiatives, shorter cycle times, and outstanding customer service. Several other customer service improvement initiatives were undertaken this year.

Trademark Assistance Center. The Trademark Assistance Center was restructured in the past year to address the weakness of handling customer complaints and to improve problem resolution. Both of these areas for improvement were identified in customer survey data. Results have been extremely favorable. By the end of the year, the service level measure indicating the percent of calls responded to within 20 seconds improved significantly -- from 23 percent at the beginning of the year to 62 percent by year’s end. Improvements that focus on identifying the source of customer complaints with the objective of preventing future occurrences will be implemented in the next year.

Goal: Minimize trademark application processing time

The USPTO received 232,939 trademark applications, including 296,388 classes for registration, marking the second highest level of filings ever recorded. This milestone followed two consecutive years with increases of 27 percent per year in the number of applications filed. Filings in FY 2001 were 21 percent less than in FY 2000. For the first time in nine years, fewer applications were received in a fiscal year than in the previous year, reflecting the largest one-year decline but also the second highest level of filings ever reported.

Results: First Action Pendency

Measure: Reduce average first action pendency to 2 months by FY 2004.

DATA VALIDATION AND VERIFICATION

• Data source: Trademark Reporting and Monitoring (TRAM) system.
• Frequency: Daily input, monthly reporting.
• Data storage: TRAM, automated systems, reports.
• Verification: Accuracy of supporting data is controlled through internal program edits in the TRAM system. Final test for reason­ableness is performed internally by examining trademark attorneys and supervisory and program management.
• Data Limitations: None.

Reduced application filings along with significant increases in examiner production and customer service performance incentives contributed to reducing first action pendency to its lowest level in 13 years. The time from filing to an examiner’s first office action decreased by the end of FY 2001 to 2.7 months from a high of 6.2 months nine months earlier. This is the first time since 1992 that first action pendency has been within the three-month goal.

Measure: Reduce average total pendency to 12 months by FY 2006.

DATA VALIDATION AND VERIFICATION

• Data source: TRAM system.
• Frequency: Daily input, monthly reporting.
• Data storage: TRAM, automated systems, reports.
• Verification: Accuracy of supporting data is controlled through inter­nal program edits in the TRAM system. Final test for reasonableness is performed internally by examining trademark attorneys and super­visory and program management.
• Data Limitations: None.

Continued high levels of applications under examination from prior years kept overall pendency to registration, notice of allowance or abandonment above the 13-month goal at 17.8 months. As the total number of applications under examination is reduced, and first actions are taken within three months, overall pendency to registration will decrease.

Employee Satisfaction Survey Results. Results of the annual employee satisfaction survey reveal that an impressive number of trademark employees– 68 percent of them–find satisfaction in the work that they do at the USPTO. Overall satisfaction of trademark employees working at the USPTO is 66 percent for the same group of employees, indicating a majority are proud to work for the USPTO. Survey results confirm that flexible work schedules, increased options for telecommuting, and opportunities to increase compensation through performance incentive awards have contributed to the satisfaction of the employees working at the USPTO and in the trademark business.

Incentive Awards. Performance-based awards were introduced to provide incentives for increased production and maintaining customer service timeliness goals. Examiners were offered the opportunity to receive semi-annual production awards of up to $10,000 for significantly higher production. Overall, the average number of first actions per examiner was 30 percent higher than the year before and the average number of action points was up more than 24 percent as a result of incentive awards. The total actions improved by nearly 26 percent with a 32 percent improvement in the number of first actions. Along with increasing employee satisfaction, incentive awards have drastically improved individual and overall production of the examining corps, reducing pendency, and increasing the total number of examiner disposals.

A group incentive award for maintaining customer service response times was implemented for technical support staff in the second half of the year and has resulted in significant progress in improving and maintaining processing times for responding to customer requests.

Trademark Work-at-Home Program. The number of examining attorneys in the TWAH telecommuting program increased more than 56 percent since the beginning of FY 2001. The program consisted of 57 participants at the beginning of FY 2001 and 89 by the end of the fiscal year. The program has led to increased production as well as increased job satisfaction.

In FY 2002, the trademark business will continue to work toward improved performance and customer satisfaction, building upon the progress that contributed to a successful year in FY 2001.

Trademark Performance

The American Inventors Protection Act, Title VI, Subtitle G, the Patent and Trademark Office Efficiency Act, established the USPTO as a PBO on March 29, 2000. The legislation allows appointment of a Commissioner for Patents as the Chief Operating Officer for Patents, and a Commissioner for Trademarks as the Chief Operating Officer for Trademarks. It also requires that an annual performance agreement be established between the Commissioners and the Secretary of Commerce. The agreement outlines measurable organizational goals and objectives for the PBO. The Commissioners may be rewarded a bonus, based upon an evaluation of their performance as defined in the agreement, of up to 50 percent of their base salary.

The trademark business goals formed the foundation for the annual performance agreement between the Commissioner for Trademarks and the Secretary of Commerce, as required by the AIPA. The performance agreement outlined measurable organizational goals and objectives for the trademark business based on the above goals and performance measures. At the time of publication, the Commissioner for Trademarks performance bonus had not been determined.