The main objective of the Patent Office is clearly defined: We want to provide the greatest scope of protection, as usual, however also get even closer to the customer by means of our services. A condition for the achievement of both targets was the flexibilisation clause introduced in 2005, initially as a two-year project. The Patent Office was the first organizational unit within the Federal Ministry for Transport, Innovation, and Technology (BMVIT) to implement this, which thus made it a trail-blazer in matters of modernisation. Following the pilot phase, the Patent Office was granted another four flexible years until 2010 – the additional extension is just an option, of course. The increased flexibility is an encouragement for us: We will make increased use of our more flexible financial management for the expansion of our services. In 2008, for example, we established our customer helpdesk.
Our one-stop-shop Customer Centre has been running for three years now. That prompted us to examine your opinion on this matter in more detail. Within the scope of the Customer Helpdesk project, we also surveyed customer and service satisfaction by means of a mystery shopping tour. The result: satisfaction is at a high 83 percent. However: we are not satisfied by that. The programme for further improvement of service satisfaction comprises the following items, among others: we are implementing a multilevel helpdesk system, in order to improve our service quality for you and make the processes more transparent. We are restructuring our Internet appearance – it shall provide you with even more comprehensive first information. We are also optimising telephonic accessibility for you: long waiting times on the phone will be a matter of the past.
In addition to that, we have made plans to clear up our language – you should not need an interpreter for our information. We want to communicate in an understandable, clear and unambiguous way. Therefore, we have started up the project designated “Grassroots Administrative Language”. The positive effects will be noticeable soon. We are establishing a separate complaint management for those points that still don’t fully work out as desired. As mentioned: 83 percent satisfaction is nice, but still not enough.
Social responsibility means not just outward action, such as the creation of our Biopatent Monitoring Committee, but also internal, intra-company initiatives. Our staff are the pillars of our success and guarantee the high quality of the services provided by the Austrian Patent Offices.
Over the past years, the employees of our Office were integrated in the future-oriented mission of the Patent Office from a socio-political and politico-economic perspective, and are still so today. This way, a new common vision for the Patent Office in the year 2015 was established jointly in 2008. The mission statement deriving from this internal process of dialogue includes, among other things, a vision of the institution that is equally valid for all employees, clear internal communication standards for everybody, and a concept for training and further education. Below, you can find the central elements of the mission statement, which was adopted unanimously within the course of an internal ballot:
Our Vision 2015
Our Mission
Our Corporate Culture
Our Leadership Culture
We offer
our employees
What we would like to have
from our employees
In Austria, the independent Biopatent Monitoring Committee chaired by the President of the Patent Office has been monitoring the ethical standards in the implementation of the European Biopatent Directive for a couple of years already. The independent committee is unique in the EU. However, at the end of 2008 and after many years of legal dispute, a landmark decision was reached also at a European level: the Enlarged Board of Appeal of the European Patent Office (EPO) ruled that the prohibition on the patenting of human embryos also applies for cells obtained from embryos. The US researcher James Thomson had managed for the very first time to stabilise a culture of human embryonic stem cells over a longer period of time and simultaneously maintain their potential of differentiation. His US patent application provided the basis for the European patent application EP 770125 A1, in matters of which the Enlarged Board of Appeal of the EPO has now made a decision. What are the implications of this decision? Based on this decision, the granting of a patent for a product (in this case the primate embryonic stem cells) is ruled out even then, if at the time of the priority the production thereof was not possible other by the use and the destruction of human embryos. Any such exploitation furthermore also clearly violates the principle of maintaining the ordre public. As an appeal to the European Court of Justice was ruled out, this final stroke by the European Patent Office seems to be final.
The Austrian Biopatent Monitoring Committee welcomes the legal clarity established thereby. However, the Committee also pointed out that this ruling was not a judgment on the lawfulness of embryonic stem-cell research, but rather more exclusively on the limits of patentability. In Austria, the use of human embryos is ruled out from patenting in general (and not only the industrial and commercial utilisation of these).
One part of the Austrian Patent Office’s responsibility is to preserve patent history. For this purpose, the Patent Office has started an initiative for the digitalisation of historical data records. Historical material is secured for posterity in the so-called “Privileges Database”, however at the same time also made easier accessible for current research. “Privileges” are the predecessors of patents (1852-1899) and thus historical documents of the history of technology and the invention sector. In order to preserve this unique cultural heritage and make the documentation on Austria’s history of technology in the 2nd half of the nineteenth century available to the general public, we have initiated this digitalisation process. In total, it is being planned to scan around 900,000 pages and integrate these in the Privileges Database. This way, they are stored on modern data carriers and can be found as well as are available at any time. In addition, the original copies are stored in archive-resistant envelopes. The overall period of this project by the Patent Office is planned to last for several years.