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Friday Jan 25, 2013

Trademark Dashboard For Quarter 1 Is Ready

Guest blog by Commissioner for Trademarks Deborah Cohn

It’s time again to share with you our Trademarks performance metrics for the last quarter, and I hope you’re as pleased as we are with the results. I should note that in response to your requests, we’ve added a new measure to the report. The application filing basis – use in commerce, intention to use, or based upon a foreign application or registration – will be reported as a percentage of new application filings. 

We’re proud to report continued high performance in our Trademark business unit. Trademark application filings continue to increase, following the record set last fiscal year when more new applications were filed than any other year.

Our record performance is the result of a number of factors including greater use of the systems, tools, and resources necessary to manage new application filings electronically and by our dedicated and qualified employees who do their best to manage them well. The Trademarks performance dashboard has been updated to showcase our record of performance results. I invite you to take a look at how the Trademarks team is working to serve you and look forward to your feedback. 

Our three quality indicators, which set high standards for examination quality, show mixed results in the first quarter. Results for first and final action compliance are slightly less than target, demonstrating the challenge in maintaining consistently high standards. Our newest indicator, ‘exceptional office action’ continues to exceed expectations for evaluating the ‘excellence’ of the examiner’s writing, evidence, and search strategy in preparing the office action. Quality results are reinforced by constant feedback, specialized training, and online tools and manuals to ensure the quality of the trademark register.

Every month over the last quarter, first action pendency stayed in the target range of 2.5 to 3.5 months from filing to issue a first action. Pendency to registration continues to remain at historically low levels. Disposal pendency – the time from when an application is filed until a trademark is registered or abandoned – has been under 12 months for the past three years – another record. This is due in part to the progress made from the use of TEAS Plus applications and greater acceptance of electronic filing, which now comprises more than 75 percent of all applications processed to disposal.

We welcome any feedback you have on how we can improve this dashboard. Simply email a comment to our dedicated mailbox. We look forward to hearing from you.

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