Public Records Division (PRD)/Public Search Services Division (PSSD)
Quarterly Public User’s Meeting
August 12, 2015
The Public User’s Meeting was held at 2:00 p.m. in the Global IP Academy, Madison East, 2nd floor, at 600 Dulany Street on the USPTO campus in Alexandria, Virginia. Donna Cooper, Manager of Public Records Division, chaired the meeting.
John Owens, CIO was present at the meeting to field any questions the public may have concerning any technological issues.
Announcements
Donna introduced the new Manager of PSSD, Christine Kitchens. Ms. Kitchens assumed the management role after the retirement of previous PSSD Manager, Martha Sneed.
PSF Customer Satisfaction Survey - Results
The results of the March 2015 PSF Customer Satisfaction Survey were presented at the meeting. A handout of the breakdown of the results of the survey was distributed to all attendees. PSF staff member Robin Jackson went over the survey results for the members of the public present at the meeting. A member of the public questioned the relevance of the data gathered via the survey since the questions asked are the same as in previous year’s surveys. It was explained that this done is so that a clear pattern of how the public views and makes use of the facility as a whole over a range of time (days, months, years). The PSF staff is then better able to assess how certain changes, upgrades, etc. affects the ways the public makes use of the facility.
Christine suggested that if the public users wished to do so they could make note of newer questions they would like to see added to the survey and pass them along to PSF Manager Terry Howard for consideration.
PSF Status
August 21, 2015 was given as the approximate date of deployment/demo of the new wifi kiosks that are being added to the PSF.
The bright board that has been down for some time should be up and running again soon. There was problem with a part that was ordered, was the wrong part and had to be reordered. Mr. Owens is checking to see if they have a spare kiosk that can be used until the problem is resolved.
PRD Status
Assignment Search Phase 2enhancements are on the way this fall.
Q&A With John Owens, CIO
How did the PE2E rollout go? 50% of users trained to use it stuck with it.
There was a question concerning accessing patent classification information. However Mr. Owens directed the user to contact the head of Patent operations, Ms. Deborah Stephens, since that does not fall directly under the CIO’s office.
Also there was kudos for the IT contractor’s outstanding customer service and support in the PSF from members of the public.
The Public User’s meeting wrapped up at 2:45pm. Next meeting date TBA.