USPTO Maintains Productivity Despite Inclement Weather
Guest blog by Russ Slifer, Deputy Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Deputy Director of the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO)
The big East Coast snowstorm last month demonstrated the continuing effectiveness of the USPTO’s telework program, as more than 9,600 of our approximately 12,000 USPTO employees were able to telework despite the aftermath of the blizzard, allowing the agency to maintain high levels of production and efficiency.
While the federal government in the Washington, D.C. area was officially shut down, 77 percent of the total USPTO workforce was teleworking at peak times of the day. Not every USPTO employee has a telework agreement. Among those who do, nearly 93 percent of all employees were working at peak times. In terms of productivity, our Trademark examining attorneys performed more than 90 percent of the work they did on recent comparable days without closures or storms. Patent examiners accomplished an average of 84 percent of the work they did on recent comparable days. Patent Trial and Appeal Board staff continued to respond to customer enquiries, judges conducted hearings remotely, and over 20 America Invents Act decisions were entered.
The USPTO has been leveraging telework for many years; since 1997 in fact, when the Trademark Work at Home program started. In those days, telework in most federal government agencies was still considered to be the “shiny new penny” and federal agencies were just starting to get on board the telework train. In addition to our headquarters in Alexandria, Virginia, the USPTO’s regional offices across the country also effectively use telework when needed to serve inventors and entrepreneurs in their regions.
Prior to this year, February 2010 saw the last severe blizzard-like weather in the Washington metropolitan area. When the 2010 “Snowmageddon” storm hit, the USPTO was prepared: Trademarks was able to maintain fully 86 percent of normal workday production, and, agency-wide, more than 3,000 USPTO employees logged on to the PTO Virtual Private Network (VPN). The 2010 blizzard also helped the 2010 Telework Enhancement Act gain traction, especially in the Washington metropolitan area.
Although Punxsutawney Phil predicts an early spring, the Farmer’s Almanac indicates more inclement weather before winter’s official end. Whatever the case may be, at the USPTO it is business as usual.
Posted at 07:53AM Feb 29, 2016 in USPTO |