The United States Patent and Trademark
Office (USPTO) uses surveys to obtain customer feedback regarding
the products, services and related service standards of the USPTO
and uses the results from these surveys to measure how well the
agency is meeting established customer service standards, to
identify any disjoints between customer expectations and USPTO
performance, and to develop improvement strategies. The USPTO
developed the Customer Panel Qualify Survey to rate customer
satisfaction with examination quality. The USPTO obtains feedback
from large domestic corporations, small and medium-size businesses,
universities and other non-profit research organizations, and
independent inventors.
EO: EO
12862 Name/Subject of EO: Setting Customer Service Standards
The Customer Panel Quality
Survey was originally conducted on a quarterly basis. However,
based on the USPTO's current use of the survey data, the agency's
ability to implement changes based on survey responses, and to
reduce costs to the Federal Government, the USPTO has decided to
conduct the survey semi-annually. The USPTO estimates that
conducting the survey semi-annually will reduce the burden for this
collection by 782 responses and 133 burden hours.
On behalf of this Federal agency, I certify that
the collection of information encompassed by this request complies
with 5 CFR 1320.9 and the related provisions of 5 CFR
1320.8(b)(3).
The following is a summary of the topics, regarding
the proposed collection of information, that the certification
covers:
(i) Why the information is being collected;
(ii) Use of information;
(iii) Burden estimate;
(iv) Nature of response (voluntary, required for a
benefit, or mandatory);
(v) Nature and extent of confidentiality; and
(vi) Need to display currently valid OMB control
number;
If you are unable to certify compliance with any of
these provisions, identify the item by leaving the box unchecked
and explain the reason in the Supporting Statement.