Customer feedback - July - September 2011
| Compilation of informal complaints made by our customers during the period of July - September 2011. The complaint received is listed in the first column. Read across the row to find out our response and any additional measures taken. | |
| Informal Complaints | Response and additional measures taken |
|---|---|
| You said, "Having spoken to an advisor at IPO earlier this morning, I am writing to express my displeasure at having to re-apply for my mark ****** under the class of CLOTHING. Surely, a class is a class irrespective of what kind of clothing it is. What is the point of having a class? I did ask the IPO to specify that ****** is 'rugby clothing only' but we now are looking at a wider collection. I feel it is totally unacceptable to have to pay another £200 for a mark that is already registered under the clothing number which if I'm not mistaken is class 25. It would appear that if someone else wanted to sell trousers under the name ****** they could so. Please explain this. This is an urgent matter so I'd be grateful if you can advice on this asap please." | We replied, "Thank you for your e-mail of 26 July. I should explain that the system relating to goods and services is separated into 45 classes. This enables the Office or customers to search for earlier marks relating to goods or services they are interested in. However, a trade mark only covers the goods or services it is registered for. I understand that you applied for clothing in Class 25 but subsequently limited to rugby clothing. Unfortunately, the legislation that covers Trade Marks does not allow for goods or services to be added once they are withdrawn from an application. Consequently, I am afraid that if you wish your trade mark to cover further items of clothing, your only option is to make a further application. I appreciate it is only a small consolation but if were to re-apply online, you will be able to benefit from the online discount of £30.00 so that the application fee would be £170.00. I would add though that should you decide to do this, your new application would go through the same process including being advertised in the Trade Marks Journal which gives other parties the opportunity to oppose the registration of your mark. In answer to your question as to whether another party could use an identical mark for items such as trousers, if you decided to take infringement action, it would be a matter for the Courts to decide whether that mark was infringing yours. I am sorry that I am unable to assist you further." |
| You said, "This was the first time I have applied for a patent online. As a layman, I found some of the questions difficult to answer and had to call the UK Patent Office. Often the person I spoke to didn't know the answer and needed to get a colleague to call me back. Yesterday, I didn't get a call back and then lost all of my entry on the browser. This was most frustrating! It should be possible to save the part-completed form. Additionally, more and clearer notes would help as to the uninitiated; the questions can be very confusing. Plain English please! Thank you." | We said, "I have spoken to the customer and apologised for us not calling him back straight away. He has feedback on the online form which he would like to feed through to the Patents department. I told him someone would be in touch in due course." |
| You said, "I had spoken to info centre on many occasions concerning filing an application for international trade mark registration but felt mis-informed about the information given. I had been told to complete a form MM1 when the correct form is MM2 and at no point had I been told there were fees for each country. This made me very distressed as he was not prepared for the large sum needed to be paid to WIPO. I informed the customer that I would complete this customer feedback form and that his comments would be noted. This action seemed to satisfy him. | I have spoken to the Manager in International fees who dealt with the feedback and she has advised that I don't need to call the customer back. He was happy with her taking the details of his feedback. IT has searched under the number and it looks like he spoke to an examiner and Information Centre we didn't give the wrong info. This one can be marked off as complete." |
| You said, "You felt that our correspondence fails to understand the aspects that you are complaining about. You were not happy with the service we provide regarding a hearing." | We wrote to you and apologised for the service we had provided and also issued an ex-gratia payment accordingly. You subsequently came back to us and withdrew your application. |
You told us, "Sir, due to the fact that Mauritius is a member of the Berne Convention and the International Copyright Law. I of Mauritius wish to report a blatant breach of: |
We replied, "Thank you for your recent communication. Although we are unable to provide legal advice on specific cases, I hope the following general information is of use to you. Although the United Kingdom is a member of the Berne Convention, the role of the Intellectual Property Office is to administer IP rights to the UK. Unfortunately, we are not an enforcement agency nor can we assist with cases of infringement. If you believe that intellectual property belonging to you or someone else has been infringed, I would advise you to consult with the local authorities and/or seek legal advice within your home state, who may be able to initiate proceedings if necessary. I hope this response has been of some assistance to you." |
| You said, "Complaint - not got a reply from emails sent on Thursday this week at about tea-time when you had Friday to reply and didn't." | After several rounds of correspondence we explained that as you are not party to the proceedings before the Registry we would be unable to provide any further information. |
| You told us, "Complaint - the size of the font used in the Patent application is very small. It is very difficult for people with eyesight problems. A larger font would help greatly, especially for older people who invariably have eyesight problems." | We tried to contact you by telephone without success and then emailed you to advise that we were unsuccessful in trying to get hold of you and would try and ring you again. In the interim you emailed and explained that this was more of an observation rather than a complaint and that you would contact us again if you still had an issue. |
| You advised, "Your website is clear as mud to navigate. I am looking for either the online form to fill in regarding Patents or ordering a paper version. Any link you think might be the right one takes you off somewhere else. A web site should be clear and clean and very easy to navigate and buttons take you to where you want to go." | We replied, "Thank-you for your feedback on our website. I am sorry you found the site not easy to navigate whilst searching for a Patent online or paper application form. If we receive more customer feedback like this we will look to see if we can make this task easier for customers to find. If you need to do this task in the future or want to add the relevant sections as bookmarks the route to the paper forms is: -from the home page select Patents in the left hand navigation and from the displayed Patent list select Patents forms and fees. The online forms route is: from the home page select 'Patents' in the left hand navigation and from the displayed Patent list selected Online Patent Services" |
| You told us, "Your website states that you welcome all feedback. I noticed that you have been successful in making ‘**** **** *** ***** **' a Trade Mark. I have no interests to declare in this matter. What I find laughable is that you and your representatives are actively bullying people for producing merchandise with this long established and well known phrase and image on it. I particularly almost cried with laughter when reading this statement on your website: "So after years of talking about it and getting nowhere fast, it's finally here. In my spare time I've managed to produce my first range of T-Shirts and clothing for the masses." (Please don't sue me for quoting you something from your own website) You make it sound that, in the manner of James Dyson, Marie Curie and George Stephenson, years of your life have been devoted to creating a world changing maybe even life saving product that you feel you have every right to protect and receive recognition for. In reality, all it appears to me that you have done is COPY the thousands of items of merchandise already (in some people's eyes) saturating the market (and which have done so for years) and then try in some way to claim it as your own. I applaud you for registering the name for your company and spending a not inconsiderable amount of cash on Google ad words to ensure your website appears at the top of the Google listings to cash in on the ESTABLISHED POPULARITY of this phrase and image. However to actually strive to make it appear that an individual is the originator of the image and that it is somehow the product of their intellect is perverse. It seems to me that the goodwill, loyalty to and recognition of a ‘brand' being hijacked, squatted on and the popularity of the image being taken advantage of is not what trademarks are all about. Isn't that what the Trade Mark laws are designed to prevent? There is of course not much point to this email apart from allowing me to vent the anger that I now feel towards you and your company (I was laughing just a few short minutes ago) To make it worth my while (and to save me having to type further emails) I have copied in the public email addresses for the Intellectual Property Office and Office For Harmonization in The Internal Market as I am interested in receiving some sort of explanation about how this application would be successful (apart from, it seems, lack of opposition during the application process)." | As this issue was a dispute between two applicants in relation to a Community Trade Mark we decided that we could not get involved. The e-mail was seen by a senior Trade Mark manager for information purposes only. |
| You told us, "I have applied for several patents using your pack of forms etc. Do you still do this? If so where on earth is it on your site? You have always been helpful in the past but this site is unnecessarily complex and confusing. Trying to look helpful rather than actually being so. I ended up going round and round. Did you do any user testing?" On 13 September you replied, "Thank you for your reply. Yes, please, if you could send forms that would be much appreciated. The address is *********************************. I did request some by e-mail but nothing has materialised yet. If I end up with 2 packs it will encourage another application. With best regards." | We replied, "Thank-you for your comments on the Intellectual Property Office website. I was sorry to read you could find any information packs on the website. The forms and guides online are separated. Forms can be seen under Patents and under forms and fees. The booklet and guides are found in about us under our mission and our publications. Not sure this has been raised as an issue before so thank-you for drawing it to my attention. I monitor customer feedback carefully and if I get many further comments similar to yours I will consider changing how these form and guides are displayed. If you would like a pack of the Patent forms and guides I can issue these to you (just let me know) or in the future if you contact our information centre they can post you out the pack you require. You can also file Patent applications on-line again our information centre can give you some advice on how to do this if required." On the 13 September we responded, "I'll issue these today for you." |
| You told us, "I called in the hope of getting advice, but when I was calling I thought 'all I will get from this lot is they'll tell me to see a lawyer'. And guess what? That's what you did. Gone are the days when we could rely on the UK government to help small businesses. Now it is just like America. Don't breath with speaking to a lawyer first :-( All I wanted was some advice. Nothing more. But alas, that was too much to ask." | We tried to contact you on the email address you gave us to ask for some further information but unfortunately the email bounced back to us. We have instead sent this on to the manager of the Information Centre for their consideration. |
| You applied for a Trade Mark and was advised to put '100% Natural' in your mark. We searched the customers phone number and traced some calls, but haven't been able to identify the call where you were advised to put '100% Natural' into your application. You are having problems with Google and they have advised you to contact us to get this removed from your Trade Mark. You are now unhappy and feel like we have given you wrong advice. | We replied, "We spoke yesterday, and earlier today about your complaint which concerns the quality of the advice you say you received from the Intellectual Property Office before you filed your Trade Mark application. I promised to provide you with a note of our discussions and provide you with some additional information. Yesterday's call concerned you repeating your complaint to me, explaining that you had a problem with Google which centred around your Trade Mark. I promised to look into your complaint and report back to you this morning. This morning when I phoned I apologised for the lack of information that had been passed to me about your complaint. This was an error on our part, and I agreed that we needed to review this part of our process so that were able to include more details about the actual complaint and therefore improve our service to our customers. I went on to explain that all our calls to and from the information centre were recorded for monitoring and training purposes and these recordings are kept for two years. My colleague in the information centre has stated she has listened to all the calls made and these calls all related to the Trade Mark application process not about the design of the Trade Mark. Our technology does not allow phone calls to be recorded which are made to any other parts of the office. Any calls made to the Trade Mark examiner during the application process have been noted on the file. You wanted to know what action the office proposed to take in relation to your complaint. I explained that we cannot get involved with your dispute with a third party (Google), nor could we amend your Trade Mark. I suggested you should seek legal advice from someone who has intellectual property experience. I also explained that the processing of Trade Marks is governed by legislation (Trade Marks Act 1994) and that Section 44 (1) states that a registered Trade Mark shall not be altered in the register, during the period of registration or on renewal. As a matter of record you agreed that your application was filed electronically using our Right Start service. On reviewing your file today I can confirm that an examination report was issued to you (29 April 2010) this included a classification query which was later resolved plus an identification of an earlier Trade Mark and the date of protection for this Trade Mark within the UK was 27 July 2004. You asked how you could escalate your complaint, and I explained about the Box 49 process. Details of the Box 49 process are available on our website.You also asked for the name of my senior manager which I gave. You can contact him by ringing 01633 814000 and asking for him." |
| You told us, "I have recently noticed that it is taking up to 2 weeks to issue application numbers. We find this is unacceptable and hope that you will clear this backlog as soon as possible." | We replied, "I refer to your email sent to our Information Centre on Tuesday 13 September which, as the Team Manager for the Trade Marks Data Capture Team, has been brought to my attention. We are currently experiencing a significant increase in both Trademark and Design applications which have coincided with the summer holiday period. These two key contributing factors have resulted in creating a backlog of pending applications and increased the number of days taken to capture new cases. As we are reaching the end of the summer period and extra resources are allocated to this particular area, the number of days taken to capture all applications will reduce and we fully expect to return to capturing new applications after 4/5 working days of receipt (providing the requirements under Section 32(2) are met) shortly. I apologise for any inconvenience that you may have been caused by the delay in processing your applications during the past few weeks. If you have a specific case that you feel was subject to an unacceptable delay please provide me with the relevant application number and I will investigate to determine if there were any other reasons other than those mentioned above, or any underlying issues that I need to be aware of. I hope this clarifies the situation but if you would like to discuss this further please feel free to contact me on the number below." |
| You told us, "I would like to report a complaint, and to kindly request to speed up the search process based on my complaint. My request is based on the fact that I lost nearly 4 months due to the counter-intuitive design of the online submission webpage. In particular, I submitted the claims and abstract on the 25 of May 2011 along with the form 9A. However, when I contacted the IP office on the 8 of Sep 2011 to check on the search result, I was informed that the claims and abstract were not received. I tried to submit the abstract and claims again on the 9 of Sep 2011, and called the IP office on the 14 of Sep 2011 to get a confirmation, but I was again informed that the documents were not received. I finally contacted your support department, and realized the problem with the counter-intuitive design of the website. Below, I illustrate the problem through the 4 main steps of submission: · Step 1: When you want to submit a document, you see the following screen: · Step2: after you select "file document" and press "Next", you are asked to upload the file: · Step3: Once you select the required file and press "Add to filing", you must select "Finish" · Step4: The tricky bit is that, once you press finish, you are sent back to the first list you saw, as if to say "do you want to do any other task"? Here, I closed the webpage, and I didn't think of re-reading the list to find that a new option has now been added at the bottom to finalize the submission. I didn't consider re-reading the list for two reasons: (1) I just pressed the "Finish" button! (2) I saw almost the same list just viewed a few seconds ago (during step1), and I never thought the same list would now appear, but with an additional option at the bottom, especially after pressing "finish". Please note that I am a computer scientist, and I tried to submit twice and I missed this final step twice. I would kindly request that consider my complaint and my speed up the search process of my application. Please also consider fixing this problem so that the problem does not occur with other users in the future." |
We replied, "Thank you for taking the time to send us your comments concerning the patents web filing service. I am sorry to hear you had a problem when using it. I have checked your submission of 25 May 2011 and the electronic filing receipt which confirm that only a Form 9A was submitted. The electronic filing receipt which is generated by our Patents web filing service indicates the documents which have been filed as part of the submission. We strongly recommend that customers who use the web filing service check their electronic receipt as soon as it arrives so that any issues with the submission can be quickly resolved. I have passed you request to speed up the search to the search examiner for your application who will consider your request. We will certainly take your suggestion into account when we have an opportunity to re-develop this service, particularly as we have received a number of other very helpful suggestions about improving our web filing service." |
| You told us, "Well so much for the UK having a hope left of recovering its trade deficit. Somebody comes up with an idea that could provide one small step in the fight to bail us out of the hole (and is prepared to PAY money to assess its viability) but it's not a priority. A Government department uses a copy & paste phrase to tell that person it is "unable to undertake additional commercial work"..? WHAT?!? My personal work has generated around £2M of tax revenue and £5M of exports for HM Govt in the past decade; yet the first time ever that I ask one of their departments to help me (instead of hounding me) I'm told there are insufficient resources. Perhaps it is just easier to take the taxes (for which nobody on the receiving side does any work at all - it is my accountants; whom I pay that do the work). I'm going to file this email so that when somebody, somewhere might come after us with a claim of infringement in the future I can at least demonstrate that I tried my best to avoid knowingly infringing on an existing patent (and any legal costs that might arise will almost certainly end up offshore - USA, etc - and be completely tax-free so that's an even greater hole that will have been dug...) Simply disgusted (and yes, disgusted from Surrey although I wasn't born here)." | We rang and discussed this with you and you thanked us for following up the complaint but said that you did not blame the IPO completely and appreciated our position on this matter. |