At the heart of excellent service is a deep understanding of the needs and perspectives of clients. In 2018, we conducted a client satisfaction survey that helped us identify opportunities for improvement and define a vision of service excellence that is client-centric and e-enabled. Our various feedback mechanisms ensure that we continue to gather and respond to client feedback on an ongoing basis and foster a culture of continuous service improvement.
Committing to service excellence
Building on the service improvement priorities identified by our client satisfaction survey, we regularly analyze client feedback from multiple sources, including CIPO's online feedback form, our Client Service Centre's front-line officers and lines of business. We identify actionable service improvements and report on the actions taken in response to feedback.
In 2019–2020, through specialized sessions and workshops, we continued to equip and empower our employees to deliver services with excellence and efficiency. We upgraded our learning framework to include a service excellence module, encouraging employees to take into account clients' perspectives in all aspects of service design and delivery. As of March 2020, over 10% of CIPO's workforce had taken part in our Clients First workshop. Participants of the workshop act as service ambassadors within the organization, applying client-centric approaches to their daily work and service improvement projects. To further reinforce our commitment to service excellence, we added service objectives to all employees' performance agreements and recognized exceptional contributions through a service excellence award.
Providing client-focused and e-enabled services
In 2019–2020, CIPO implemented a number of new solutions to better meet the needs of clients. The ability to record calls coming into our Client Service Centre permits us to evaluate the quality of client interactions and further informs quality control activities and training content by providing concrete examples for improving etiquette and consistency of information. We also acquired tools to generate and transmit certified copies of IP documents electronically, which has reduced the number of physical files we handle and improved the timeliness of this service for clients. Since May 2019, clients who conduct in-person business with CIPO (at 50 Victoria Street, Gatineau) can access free Wi-Fi throughout the building.
To improve our clients' e-service experience, we upgraded the navigation features of the patent e-filing tool. New navigation menus clearly identify each step of the application process, highlighting the steps that are mandatory and those that are complete. The automated fee calculator estimates the clients' payable fee amount and suggests optional service fees based on the information provided by clients. An enhanced preview option also makes it easier for clients to match their payments to their submissions.
Since the coming into force of the modernized trademarks legislative framework on June 17, 2019, we made significant improvements to trademarks online services. Specifically, we implemented new system automations pertaining to the Trademark E-Registration and E-Renewal service in February 2020. Transactions for new trademark applications and renewal requests can now be automatically processed upon submission. As a result, the system sends correspondence pertaining to the incumbent via email within an hour. This initiative originated from a collaborative workshop facilitated by PricewaterhouseCoopers in July 2019 and has been well received by CIPO's clients.
With the advent of the Hague Agreement for industrial designs, we introduced a new e-amendment solution that permits basic online amendments to industrial design applications. This solution offers a secure and fully integrated experience to clients who are accustomed to e-filing. Through a new e-mailbox, clients can receive and manage electronic communications from the Industrial Design Office.
To ensure timely receipt and processing of documents by the Trademarks Opposition Board, users can now submit the majority of documents for opposition and section 45 proceedings online, including statements of opposition, counter statements, section 45 notices, evidence, written representations, hearing requests, extensions of time and general correspondence.
Finally, we began optimizing the CIPO website, starting with a reorganization of the website's main content to make it easier for clients and innovators to find and access information about IP. We will continue to make improvements to our website over the coming year.
Improving the usability of CIPO databases
In 2019–2020, CIPO introduced a number of tools that improve digital access to IP data. This is an important step in realizing our vision of making IP data more widely available, accessible and usable for innovators, businesses and researchers.
Over 15 million searches are conducted in the Canadian Patents Database and Canadian Trademarks Database annually. CIPO made several performance improvements to these databases and put in place the infrastructure required for future improvement. The Canadian Patents Database now contains more fields of information, including fee payment, due dates, full ownership information and a complete description for patents granted since 1978. Where possible, the forecasted issuance date of a patent is also included. These improvements increase the amount of information available to clients and should reduce the number of associated calls to our Client Service Centre. The Canadian Trademarks Database has also seen the addition of new features in accordance with the recent accession to the 3 international trademark treaties, including a new user interface and improved search capabilities.
In June 2019, CIPO launched IP Horizons, a new web-based service providing free and direct access to bulk IP data from Canada. Replacing the dated practice of using physical media, the new service enables interested parties to download and automate transfers of bulk data at their convenience, free of charge. In coming years, IP Horizons will evolve to introduce new data products, file formats and information.
The Patent Appeal Board now publishes its Commissioner's decisions on the CIPO website using the Decisia platform. This platform, which CIPO uses to publish decisions of the Trademarks Opposition Board, offers a more advanced user interface and search capabilities and provides a better user experience overall.
To help clients and innovators find registered trademark and patent agents, CIPO introduced an online IP Agent Search tool. Clients can find agents near them using Google Maps geolocation, export their search results to various formats and print information about specific agents who can assist them in protecting their IP.