Program 1: IP rights administration and professional registration
Program Objectives | IP Australia will deliver robust IP rights that satisfy our customers in terms of timeliness and value for money, and will maintain the professional registration of persons wishing to qualify for registration as patents and/or trade marks attorneys. IP Australia will be recognised as one of the leading IP offices in the world for the quality and accuracy of our work IP Australia will achieve operational excellence by ensuring high performance in our core business and internal operations |
Intended Result | Continuous improvement in quality across our IP rights administration and professional registration services, and our adherence to our service commitments. Staff satisfaction with supporting and enabling services, and the way we work together across IP Australia. A sustainable and cost-effective business model |
Related Purpose | Ensuring Australians benefit from great ideas. |
Activities
IP Australia’s key activities under this program in 2019–20 included:
- providing high-quality and timely administration of IP rights and attorney registrations for our customers
- completing the refurbishment of our Canberra and Melbourne offices and instituting more flexible working arrangements for staff under the Future Way of Working program
- developing a new quality review framework and commencing implementation of the framework, to provide greater consistency across our search and examination services
- implementing a new performance and achievement framework that places greater emphasis on staff collaboration to deliver robust and defensible IP rights for our customers
- continuing to modernise our systems and processes through our Transactional Digital Services program.
Analysis
2019–20 provided an opportunity to demonstrate our operational excellence and continue to deliver robust IP rights that met the expectations of our customers. We met 27 of the 34 commitments outlined in the 2019-20 Customer Service Charter, but did not meet six timeliness commitments across patents, trade marks and designs and one quality commitment under trade marks.
Non-compliance against Customer Service Charter commitments for trade marks largely reflects past workforce limitations. As they complete the two-year training requirement, a large intake of trainee examiners over the last 24 months is addressing the stockpile of unexamined applications. Over the coming financial year, the remainder will complete training and along with an ongoing recruitment plan, this will enable Customer Service Charter commitments to be met going forward.
Non-compliance for patents is largely attributed to the impact of higher than expected filings in certain technology areas and lower than planned staffing levels. The situation is being actively managed by improving how work is allocated to existing resources and through the recruitment of new patent examiners. Non-compliance for designs is attributed to high demand which is being addressed through an increase in the number of qualified design examiners.
Our commitment to issue 85 per cent of hearing decisions within 13 weeks of being heard, unless a further submission or evidence is received, was not met for patents, trade marks or designs. This is being addressed through increasing the number of staff trained to undertake hearings, and through more efficient case load allocation to available and experienced staff within the agency.
IP Australia focused on improving the quality of our services in 2019–20, fundamentally changing our approach to quality and performance. We introduced a new quality review framework, moving away from the previous overly prescriptive, compliance-focused framework that had done little to improve quality. The new framework takes a principles-based approach that will lead to greater consistency across our search and examination services.
We also delivered a new quality review IT system for our trade mark and design examiners. This system allows for more flexible reviews during the application process to improve the information we give customers. Implementing this for patents is a priority for 2020–21.
To support the delivery of high-quality and robust IP rights, we also implemented a new performance and achievement framework. The previous framework focused on individual targets for our staff, offering incentives for higher production. The new framework builds engaged, supported and productive teams that work collaboratively to achieve outcomes.
Case Study - Quality Review Framework In 2019–20, IP Australia completed a holistic review of the quality review framework. This led to the introduction of a new framework that takes a principles-based approach to quality, recognising the skills, capability and judgement of staff. The new framework will drive greater consistency across our search and examination services. It assesses products against a set of customer-focused objectives and standards, which were developed after consultation with various IP stakeholders. The process includes reviewing randomly sampled products, with those that have a greater importance or higher impact on customers being sampled at higher rates. At the same time, an internal audit assessed IP Australia’s approach to quality across the organisation and identified opportunities for improvement. This resulted in significant streamlining of certain processes and documentation. Quality certification is now limited to the IP Rights Division and is not being pursued in areas where it provides little or no value for our customers. The continual improvement of our quality management system further supports IP Australia being recognised as a world-leading office for quality, ensuring Australians benefit from great ideas. |
Results
Criterion | Customer Service Charter and legislative commitments are met. IP rights applications are processed in a timely manner. |
|---|---|
Target | Achieved. All IP rights applications are processed according to the undertakings set out in the Customer Service Charter. |
Result | Partially achieved – six timeliness commitments under the Customer Service Charter were not met. |
Table 5: Customer Service Charter commitments - Patents
Commitment | Result |
85% of applications for standard patents will be examined and a first report issued within 12 months of receiving the request for examination. | 92% |
85% of innovation patents will be examined and a first report issued within eight weeks of receiving the request for examination or publication. | 89% |
85% of applications for standard patents will be examined and a first report issued within eight weeks of receiving a request for expedited examination. | 93% |
85% of international search reports will be issued within 10 weeks of receiving the search copy of the international application, unless the application is for more than one invention. | 86% |
85% of international-type search reports for patents will be issued within six weeks of receiving the request for the search, unless the search request covers more than one invention or we ask the applicant to supply a written search statement. | 81% |
85% of correspondence relating to the examination of an application will be responded to within 20 working days of receiving that correspondence. | 92% |
85% of standard patents will be granted within four weeks of the opposition period expiry date, provided no one has opposed the application and applicable fees have been paid. | 100% |
85% of innovation patents will be granted within four weeks of the application being lodged, provided the applicant has paid the fee and complied with the formalities. | 94% |
85% of hearing decisions will be issued within 13 weeks of being heard, unless we receive further submissions or evidence. | 61% |
Table 6: Customer Service Charter commitments - Trade marks
Commitment | Result |
85% of TM Headstart requests will be responded to within five working days of their submission. | 88% |
85% of trade mark applications will be examined and a report issued within 13 weeks of receiving the application. | 23% |
85% of correspondence relating to the examination of an application will be issued within 20 working days of receiving the correspondence. | 88% |
85% of trade marks will be registered within 10 working days of the opposition period expiry date, provided no one has opposed the application and applicable fees have been paid. | 100% |
85% of hearing decisions will be issued within 13 weeks of being heard, unless we receive further submissions or evidence. | 54% |
Table 7: Customer Service Charter commitments - Designs
Commitment | Result |
85% of registered designs will be examined and a report issued within 13 weeks of receiving the request for examination. | 24% |
85% of correspondence relating to the examination of a design application will be responded to within 20 working days of receiving the correspondence. | 95% |
85% of design applications will undergo formality checks within eight weeks of receiving a request for registration. | 96% |
85% of designs will be registered within 20 working days of compliance with the formalities check. | 100% |
85% of hearing decisions will be issued within 13 weeks of being heard, unless we receive further submissions or evidence. | 33% |
Table 8: Customer Service Charter commitments - Plant breeder's rights
Commitment | Result |
85% of applications for plant breeder’s rights will have initial examinations conducted within eight weeks of receiving the application. | 100% |
85% of correspondence relating to the examination of an application will be responded to within 20 working days of receiving the correspondence. | 100% |
85% of plant breeder’s rights will be registered within 10 working days, providing all registration criteria have been met. | 100% |
Criterion | Agreed quality levels and standards for IP rights search and examination are met. All IP rights applications are processed in accordance with the quality levels and standards reviewed and set in consultation with stakeholders. |
|---|---|
Target | Achieved. |
Result | Partially achieved – 11 of 12 agreed quality levels and standards were met with the product quality standard (Tier 1) for trade marks not met. |
Product quality standard | Patents | Trade marks | Designs | Plant breeder’s rights |
Tier 1: 93.5% of cases conform to the product quality standard. | 97.7% | 91.1% | 96.3% | 100% |
Tier 2: 90% of cases conform to the product quality standard. | 96% | 96% | 100% | 100% |
Tier 3: 85% of cases conform to the product quality standard. | 92% | 97% | 93% | 100% |
Criterion | There is overall customer satisfaction with IP Australia as an agency. |
|---|---|
Target | Overall customer satisfaction is above 90%, as measured in the Customer Satisfaction Survey. |
Result | Not achieved. 87% of customers surveyed indicated satisfaction. |
Criterion | Applications for trans-Tasman attorney registration are processed within an acceptable timeframe (15 working days of the date that the application complies with all registration requirements). |
|---|---|
Target | Achieved. |
Result | 100% of applications were processed within the required timeframe. |
Criterion | Internal systems availability meets business needs. |
|---|---|
Target | Achieved. |
Result | Internal systems availability was achieved for 99.9% of the time during business hours and 99.3% of the time outside business hours. |
Criterion | Information and data management matures and improves. |
|---|---|
Target | Our information management maturity meets or exceeds the Australian Government average in the National Archives of Australia Check-up PLUS survey. |
Result | IP Australia’s result (3.36) exceeded the Australian Government average of 3.25. |
Criterion | Staff satisfaction is maintained through flexible, agile and innovative ways of working, and projected benefits are realised. |
|---|---|
Target | Achieved. |
Result | No result recorded. Performance against this criterion is measured by staff feedback provided in the APS State of the Service survey, which has been postponed until October 2020 due to COVID-19. |
Criterion | IP Australia’s data literacy results improve on the 2017–18 benchmark. |
|---|---|
Target | Achieved. |
Result | Not achieved. IP Australia’s data literacy remains unchanged compared to the 2017–18 benchmark (a composite index of staff responses to a data literacy survey). |
Visit
https://www.transparency.gov.au/annual-reports/ip-australia/reporting-year/2019-20-2