Quality Management at the SPTO

The Spanish Patent and Trademark Office (SPTO) has maintained and extended its Quality Management System certificate in compliance with UNE-EN ISO 9001:2008, and has renewed its R&D+I Management, Technological Surveillance and Competitive Intelligence System certificate in compliance with UNE 166.066:2011.

For the first time, the processes for Validation of a European patent and Appeal Formalities have been included within the Quality Management System certificate.

The audit report considers that the Management System is appropriate for organisational processes, that it meets the requirements of the standards and that its approach is user-oriented and is open to improvement.

High degree of satisfaction
In line to improve and to find out users’ opinions, over recent months surveys have been carried out to determine the degree of satisfaction of On-Call Patent Examiners, subscribers to the Technological Surveillance Bulletins and Appellants. The results were analysed internally during the Quality Management System review meetings in the month of June, and the conclusions were used to make improvements. The results show a high rate of satisfaction with the services provided by the SPTO.

The user feedback obtained from these surveys is an essential pillar of the Quality System and a necessary element for maintaining and extending the Quality Management and Technological Surveillance certificates held by the SPTO.

• Summary of the Survey on satisfaction of subscribers to Technological Surveillance Bulletins 2014
• Summary of the Survey on satisfaction of the On-Call Patent Examiner Service 2014
• Summary of the Survey on satisfaction of appellants 2014

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