Users' Positive Assessment of Examination Quality Increases

1. Background to the surveys

Provision of internationally-reliable and quality examinations is a significant duty for the JPO to support companies in smooth business development, promote innovations and maintain healthy transactions among companies. The JPO aims to ascertain the quality of examinations and IP users’ opinions on examinations and to reflect the ascertained results in its future policies for quality management. To this end, it has been conducting surveys on quality of examinations of patent, design and trademark applications and analyzing the survey results.
 

2. Survey method

The JPO conducted a survey on the quality of patent, design and trademark examinations focusing on the overall quality of examinations, and asked respondents to score multiple questionnaire items on a 5-point scale. The FY2020 survey was conducted between April and July 2020 online* and the response rate was over 80%. Details of the respondents are as follows.
 
Patent: 621 IP users (out of 718 subjects)
Design: 289 IP users (out of 349 subjects)
Trademark: 360 IP users (out of 419 subjects)
 

3. Outline of the survey results and future actions

(1) Patent examination

• The ratio of respondents who evaluated the overall quality of patent examinations of domestic applications as “neutral” or higher by scoring it a 3 or more on a 5-point scale was 97.3%, up by 3.6 percentage points (pp) from the previous year (see Figure 1).

• The ratio of those who evaluated the overall quality of international search involving PCT applications as “neutral” or higher was 97.2%, down by 0.2 pp from the previous year.

• The ratio of those who evaluated the communication with examiners such as face-to-face interviews and telephone conversations, a questionnaire item on the overall quality of examinations of domestic applications, as “neutral” or higher was 97.0%, up by 0.8 pp from the previous year. Out of this, the ratio of those who positively evaluated the item was 71.0%, up by 10.4 pp from the previous year. 

• Concerning the consistency of judgments among examiners and the application of Article 29 (2) of the Patent Act (inventive step), on which the JPO has been placing weight, the ratios of those who evaluated the items as “neutral” or higher were 86.2%, up by 0.5 pp from the previous year, and 88.3%, up by 0.1 pp from the previous year, respectively.

• In response to the results of the FY2020 survey, concerning the consistency of judgments among examiners and the application of Article 29 (2) of the Patent Act (inventive step), the JPO will strive to share knowledge among examiners through consultation among them and other efforts and will continue to advance efforts placing weight on these matters.

• Figure 1: Evaluation of the overall quality of patent examinations of domestic applications

(2) Design examination

• The ratio of those who evaluated the overall quality of design examinations as “neutral” or higher was 96.5%, up by 1.4 pp from the previous year (see Figure 2). 

• The ratio of those who evaluated the overall quality of examinations of international design applications filed under the Geneva Act of the Hague Agreement Concerning the International Registration of Industrial Designs as “neutral” or higher was 95.2%, down by 1.5 pp from the previous year.

• The ratio of those who evaluated the communication with examiners such as face-to-face interviews and telephone conversations as a questionnaire item on the overall quality of design examinations, as “neutral” or higher was 99.3%, up by 2.2 pp from the previous year. Out of this, the ratio of those who positively evaluated the item was 72.7%, down by 0.9 pp from the previous year.

• Concerning the consistency of judgments among examiners, the descriptions of notifications of reasons for refusal and other documents and the level of expert knowledge, on which the JPO has been placing weight, the ratios of those who positively evaluated the respective items were 50.4%, up by 3.6 pp from the previous year, 59.8%, up by 3.1 pp from the previous year, and 54.4%, up by 6.5 pp from the previous year, respectively.

• In response to the results of the FY2020 survey, concerning the consistency of judgments among examiners and the descriptions of notifications of reasons for refusal and other documents, the JPO will strive to observe the Revised Examination Guidelines for Design, improve the consistency of judgments among examiners through consultation on judgments among them and improve the descriptions of notifications of reasons for refusal and other documents in an easy-to-understand manner, and it will continue to advance efforts placing weight on these matters.

• Figure 2: Evaluation of the overall quality of design examinations

(3) Trademark examination

• The ratio of those who evaluated the overall quality of trademark examinations as “neutral” or higher was 91.3%, up by 1.1 pp from the previous year (see Figure 3).

• The ratio of those who evaluated the communication with examiners such as telephone conversations and face-to-face interviews, a questionnaire item on the overall quality of trademark examinations, as “neutral” or higher was 95.3%, up by 0.8 pp from the previous year. Out of this, the ratio of those who positively evaluated the item was 69.6%, up by 7.9 pp from the previous year.

• Concerning the judgment of distinctiveness and the consistency of judgments among examiners, on which the JPO has been placing weight, the ratios of those who positively evaluated the items were 44.0%, up by 9.2 pp from the previous year, and 37.3%, up by 10 pp from the previous year, respectively.

• In response to the results of the FY2020 survey, concerning the judgment of distinctiveness and the consistency of judgments among examiners, the JPO will thoroughly raise examiners’ understanding of the Examination Guidelines for Trademark, whose section about distinctiveness was revised, exchange opinions with industrial players and companies, and promote consultation among examiners, and it will continue to advance efforts placing weight on these matters.

• Figure 3: Evaluation of the overall quality of trademark examinations

Note: In the past and the FY2019 surveys, the JPO requested respondents to submit the questionnaire sheets by email. In the FY2020 survey, however, it changed its survey method by requesting respondents to file such sheets through online forms. Taking this into consideration, the JPO will pay attention to changes in survey results.

4. Details of the survey results

For the full text of a report on each FY2020 survey, visit the following websites.

• Patent (in Japanese)
• Design (in Japanese)
• Trademark (in Japanese)

Link to related information

• User Satisfaction Surveys on Examination Quality (in Japanese)

Division in Charge

• Information on the FY2020 User Satisfaction Survey on Patent Examination Quality:

  Quality Management Office, Administrative Affairs Division, Patent and Design Examination Department (Physics, Optics, Social Infrastructure and Design), JPO

• Information on the FY2020 User Satisfaction Survey on Design Examination Quality:

  Design Division, Patent and Design Examination Department (Physics, Optics, Social Infrastructure and Design), JPO

• Information on the FY2020 User Satisfaction Survey on Trademark Examination Quality:

  Information on the FY2020 User Satisfaction Survey on Trademark Examination Quality:

  Trademark Division, Trademark and Customer Relations Department, JPO

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