Agency targets

Our agency targets cover our core business activities. These are agreed by our Minister for each financial year.

Targets for 2011 - 2012

Policy

1. Proposals for enhanced cooperation on the EU Patent and Patent Court are adopted in line with UK objectives.

Rights granting

2. Efficiently deliver high quality patents, so that:

90% of patent search reports are issued within 4 months of request; and
all outstanding patent examinations older than 42 months are cleared by the end of March 2012.

3. Efficiently deliver high quality trade marks and registered designs, so that:

applications for trade marks, for which we have not raised any issues and no opposition has been filed, are registered within 4 months in 85% of cases, within 5 months in 90% of cases, and within 6 months in 95% of cases;
the correct decision on registration is made in at least 99% of trade mark applications; and
95% of design applications, for which we have not raised any issues, are registered within 1 month.

Targeted business support

4. Deliver business outreach that enables 85% of its recipients to improve the IP performance of their businesses or the businesses they advise.

5. IPO customers will give an average score of 8 out of 10 for the service they receive.

Enablers: Value for Money, and people

6. Achieve a return on capital employed of 4%.

7. In addition to the Return on Capital Employed, deliver an efficiency gain of 3.5%.

8. Improve the IPO's engagement index so that our score is at least equal to that of the Civil Service 2011 benchmark.