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Intellectual Property Office: Performance Targets

Following the Statement made on 29 March 2010 (Official Report, col. WS 172-73), I would like to advise the House of certain changes to the targets set for the Intellectual Property Office for 2010-11. The revised targets are as follows: be able by March 2011 to quantify the level of IP rights and estimate IP’s impact on the knowledge economy; develop proposals on how the UK’s industrial property and copyright framework can further promote entrepreneurialism, economic growth and social and commercial innovation; EU free trade agreements (FTAs) negotiated and agreed with IP provisions in line with UK priorities; issue 80 per cent of patent search reports within four months of request; give good customer service in processing patent applications in 95 per cent of quality assured cases; clear all outstanding patent examinations older than 49 months by March 2011; register applications for trade marks, for which we have not raised any issues and no opposition has been filed, within four months in 85 per cent of cases, within five months in 90 per cent of cases and within six months in 95 per cent of cases; make the correct decision on registration on at least 99 per cent of trade mark applications; register 95 per cent of design applications for which we have not raised any issues within one month; our business outreach enables 80 per cent of its recipients to improve the IP performance of their business or the businesses they advise; achieve a return on capital employed of 4 per cent; achieve the savings target set by BIS of £6.3 million for 2010-11; 90 per cent of IPO customers will be satisfied with the service they receive; and demonstrable improvement in our people’s perceptions of leadership and change management capability at all levels of the IPO compared with 2009. These targets reflect the purpose of the Intellectual Property Office, which is to promote innovation by providing a clear, accessible and widely understood IP framework to enable creators, users and consumers to benefit from knowledge and ideas.