| |
 |
N. 38, April - June 2008
|
|
|
 | IP & RTD: Articles
 |
|
|
|
User satisfaction with OHIM rises
Reg Rea
OHIM
|
|
|
For the third year running, OHIM has commissioned a User
Satisfaction Survey (USS) designed to measure the perceived quality of its
service and how different activities of the Office contribute to “global
satisfaction”.
The latest USS, carried out by GfK Emer, which is part the fifth
largest market research group in the world, shows that users in general and
agents in particular, continue to be generally satisfied with OHIM and that in
2007 the situation improved still further.
All users who had professional dealings with OHIM during 2007 were
invited to participate in the survey, carried out at the beginning of this
year, and a record number of more than 1 200 participants took part. OHIM uses
the survey to establish priorities for improvement and assess the effectiveness
of action taken over the years.
The USS includes a series of questions that are used to draw up a
User Satisfaction Index (USI). It shows that in 2007 satisfaction with the
Office, as measured by the index, increased significantly, by just under 4% for
agents and almost 6% for proprietors1. The full results of the study are available on the
OHIM website2.
The figures show that there have been improvements in user
satisfaction on a yearly basis since the first survey in 2005. This change
became much clearer last year as a result of measures adopted by OHIM and
publicised in the OHIM Service Charter, which sets out concrete targets in
three key areas – accessibility, timeliness and quality of
decisions3.
The survey indicated that users put a high importance on the
introduction by OHIM of challenging standards for a range of issues including:
- time standards for the examination, publication and
registration of CTMs, and quality standards for applications and the absolute
grounds examination
- time standards for the admissibility phase of CTM opposition
proceedings and quality standards for opposition decisions
- time standards for the acknowledgement of receipt and
publication of RCDs and quality standards for the registration of applications.
In most cases users also expressed increased levels of satisfaction
with OHIM’s performance against these specific standards.
Overall, the 2007 survey shows a considerable increase in
satisfaction in the three main areas covered – “global
image”, “the core business”, “information and
communication”.
With regards to the core business, satisfaction with the Community
trade mark (CTM), Community design (RCD) and Register areas increased by around
10%, and for proprietors the evaluation of improvements in the Register was
even higher.
There was an improvement in user satisfaction for agents in all
areas of the CTM - applications, oppositions and invalidity. Proprietors also
found there had been improvements in most areas, and in all cases satisfaction
was at or above the prescribed level of 55%, calculated by the consultants as
the minimum standard OHIM needed to aim for.
Looking at the Community design, both agents and proprietors
expressed a very high level of satisfaction in all areas, indicating that the
RCD is one of the strengths of the Office.
Satisfaction varied by country but in most cases was reasonably
steady or up compared with the previous year.
While satisfaction rose overall, the survey indicated some concerns
about the speed and reliability of OHIM’s e-Business tools, though
“ease of use” and “security” were rated more
highly. Among proprietors, the use of electronic filing generally was on the
increase.
The survey also showed that the number of complaints had decreased,
while the Office’s efficiency in resolving them had improved. There was
also an improvement in the perceived “accessibility” of Office
employees and an overall perception that OHIM was functioning better compared
with a year ago.
1.
All figures rounded.(«)
2.
The complete survey report and executive summary are available at
http://oami.europa.eu/en/office/survey.htm(«)
3.
OHIM Service Charter:
http://oami.europa.eu/en/userscorner/service_charter.htm(«)
|
| |
|
|
