U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, Department of Commerce
Applications for trademarks in the U.S. have soared over the past two years—highlighting the importance of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office in helping businesses and entrepreneurs protect their brands and identities while advancing American innovation.
The Trademark Assistance Center gets high marks from callers for its ability to answer basic questions about trademarks and help people understand the process of filing an application. And while trademark information can be full of legal jargon, a recent redesign of the trademarks website has made it easier for people to find and absorb complex information.
Customers note that the process of applying for a trademark could be more user-friendly—people often struggle to understand which forms to use, how to file them and what information they need to provide for the process. The trademark office plans to address this challenge by building a new, streamlined trademark application system that will combine all the relevant forms and information in one place to make it easier for customers to navigate the application process.
Service Overview
Trademarks registered by the U.S. government benefit businesses and consumers around the world. They help businesses protect their brands and help customers avoid confusion about which business is providing a product or service—especially important as more commerce is done virtually.
Primary customers
Nearly everyone who engages in commerce in the United States, but especially individual business owners seeking to register or maintain a trademark, and attorneys who support businesses in trademark law.
Key services provided to customers
- Receipt and review of trademark applications, and decisions on those applications.
- Answers to basic questions about trademarks, mainly for people who are seeking a trademark and information on how to apply.
- Outreach events to educate people about trademarks.
- Status updates on trademark applications.
- A searchable database where people can find information about all registered trademarks.
Service Snapshot (all data for fiscal year 2020)
- 9,376,197 visits to USPTO trademark webpages.
- 128,370 calls to the Trademark Assistance Center.
- Average wait time: about 20 seconds.
- 738,112 trademark applications filed, nearly a 10% increase from fiscal year 2019.
- 295,728 trademarks registered.
- Average time to obtain a trademark: 9.5 months.
Data Highlights
increase in trademark applications between fiscal years 2019 and 20211.
of callers are satisfied with their experience with the Trademark Assistance Center.
of customers think the information provided on USPTO trademarks webpages is clear.
Customer Experience Insights
Improvement from last year
Room for improvement
People call the Trademark Assistance Center to understand trademark issues and learn if they need to apply for one; to get help filing for a trademark; and to check on the status of an application. Callers report it is easy to reach a representative and that employees are helpful, although about 10% strongly disagree that their issue was resolved. Agency officials noted this may be the result of some customers not reaching the correct contact center when being transferred between USPTO contact centers, and the agency plans to examine call transferring processes to understand and address this issue.
Managers at the contact center noted an increasing need to provide support and encourage self-care among front-line employees experiencing “compassion fatigue,” particularly in the past year. There has been an uptick of callers who are in difficult situations—for example, dealing with financial difficulty, or trying to juggle trademark applications while they or their relatives were sick. To prevent burnout, USPTO leaders emphasize the importance of self-care and prioritize giving contact center staff members the opportunity to step away from work, even if it is just for a few minutes, after an exceptionally difficult call. The contact center also has a continuous training program to help build employee capacity to handle these calls: if there is an increase in a certain type of call or customer question, the entire contact center staff is then trained on tips for handling that situation.
In March 2021, the USPTO team embarked on a website redesign, prompted by customer research that revealed many trademark applicants were struggling to find and understand basic information about the trademark process, such as where to start, how much it costs and how long it takes to get a trademark, and whether they need an attorney. When they found the language they were seeking, it was often in legalese and difficult for applicants without an attorney, about one-third of the applicant base, to understand.
During the redesign process, the USPTO team rewrote and reorganized dozens of webpages, consolidating their content into a few key categories based on the top tasks people come to the website to complete. The new categories focus on educating people about trademark basics. The complex instructions and legal language are relegated to subpages or forms, so people do not get mired in too much information at the start of their journey.
While the agency has not so far seen a large shift in customer ratings from its website survey, its research did show that new visitors to the website after the redesign were more satisfied with their experience than first-time visitors before the redesign. After the launch, the team also saw a big shift in customer feedback on individual webpages, with customers rating most webpages as helpful 92% of the time—an increase from 75% before the update, according to USPTO staff. Additionally, the contact center staff noted that while customers used to call with general questions, many customers now get that basic information on the updated website and use the contact center to answer more specific, higher-level questions.
Tips for a website reboot
Based on customer feedback, which indicated the website had major flaws, the trademark staff approached the redesign by wiping the slate clean and thinking beyond what was already on the website instead of trying to improve existing content. In addition to thinking creatively and engaging customers, they brought a variety of staff voices into the redesign, including outreach personnel who work with applicants, attorneys and writers skilled in using plain language.
After creating a first draft, the team tested the redesigned website with a variety of customers, including trademark attorneys and customers without legal backgrounds. They then used this feedback to further refine the pages and clarify any language customers noted was still confusing.
The team also noted the power of using examples and real-life scenarios on the website, especially when trying to convey legal or highly technical concepts in easy-to-understand ways.
The Trademark Electronic Application System can be difficult to navigate and understand, especially for business owners who do not have an attorney representing them in the trademark application process, according to USPTO staff. People struggle to understand which forms to use; where to find those forms, since they are not located in the system itself; and what information they need to provide.
To address this issue, the trademark office plans to overhaul the system with a new modern platform for applying for trademarks. The office is conducting user research in 2021 to support this effort and, in 2022, hopes to build components and prototypes of a new system and then test and refine them.
Businesses can often register a website domain name in a day, so many business representatives are surprised to discover that applying for a trademark can take more than nine months due to the legal reviews required. The trademark staff is focusing on setting realistic expectations by providing more information about processing times on the website to educate applicants about the process upfront and by providing status updates along the way that are easier for applicants to understand.
Leading Customer Experience Practices
The Partnership and Accenture developed the following list of practices to understand how agencies prioritize the customer experience, and steps they can take to improve. The list is based on research about effective customer experience practices in both government and the private sector, and aligns with practices in a customer experience maturity self-assessment for agencies developed by the Office of Management and Budget.
Footnotes
- Based on fiscal year 2021 estimate. https://www.uspto.gov/sites/default/files/documents/20210521_TPAC-Trademarks_Business_Performance.pdf
- Data from an email survey sent to customers within a week of calling the Trademark Assistance Center. Response options used a five-point Likert scale. The percentages for each question represent the percentage of customers who responded “four” and “five” for Q1 and Q2 of fiscal year 2021.
- Data from online customer satisfaction survey on Trademarks website. Response options used a five-point Likert scale. The percentages for each question represent the percentage of customers who responded four and five. Before redesign data is for Q1 and Q2 of fiscal year 2021, after redesign data is for Q3 of fiscal year 2021.
Customer experience indicators methodology
The Partnership and Accenture developed the following list of practices to understand how agencies prioritize the customer experience, and steps they can take to improve. The list is based on research about effective customer experience practices in government and the private sector, and aligns with practices in a customer experience maturity self-assessment for agencies developed by the Office of Management and Budget.
Organizational Commitment
A strong commitment and plan from agency leaders to prioritize customer experience is essential for sustained progress.
The agency:
- Includes high-quality customer experience in its strategic goals.
- Criteria: a) customer experience with the agency’s services is listed in the strategic plan as one of the organization’s top priorities, or a supporting goal of one of the priorities b) the strategic plan provides specific actions the agency will take to improve customer experience
- Criteria: a) customer experience with the agency’s services is listed in the strategic plan as one of the organization’s top priorities, or a supporting goal of one of the priorities b) the strategic plan provides specific actions the agency will take to improve customer experience
- Specifies customer feedback as a key measure of the organization’s performance.
- Criteria: There is a performance measure included in the agency’s strategic plan, annual performance report or agency priority goals that is based on feedback directly from customers.
- Criteria: There is a performance measure included in the agency’s strategic plan, annual performance report or agency priority goals that is based on feedback directly from customers.
- Has a senior executive with the responsibility and authority to lead efforts to improve the customer experience across the organization.
- Criteria: Based on a review of the agency’s organizational chart and online descriptions of leadership positions, the agency has an executive who meets the following criteria: a) customer experience is that executive’s primary responsibility b) the executive reports to the head of the organization or a deputy c) the executive’s work spans all major service delivery channels (e.g., online services, contact centers, face-to-face services).
Ease of Customer Interactions
Interactions with the federal government should be easy, transparent and designed around user needs.
For the most common services provided, customers can:
- Complete common transactions using the service delivery channel of their choice.
- Criteria: Based on a review of the agency’s website, customers have multiple options to complete common transactions including going online, calling, using webchat and visiting field offices or other physical locations.
- Criteria: Based on a review of the agency’s website, customers have multiple options to complete common transactions including going online, calling, using webchat and visiting field offices or other physical locations.
- Obtain status updates through online self-service.
- Criteria: customers can get real-time updates through an online self-service channel that provides estimated timelines.
- Criteria: customers can get real-time updates through an online self-service channel that provides estimated timelines.
- Receive a response to feedback or answers to questions over social media.
- Criteria: Does the agency respond to questions through the direct message feature on Facebook and Twitter, or in the comment section of posts? To assess this, we examined social media posts on the service’s primary account across a three-month period. “No” indicates the agency never or rarely responds to comments; “partially” indicates the agency responds sometimes, but not consistently; and “yes” indicates the agency responds to comments on a frequent and consistent basis.
- Criteria: Does the agency respond to questions through the direct message feature on Facebook and Twitter, or in the comment section of posts? To assess this, we examined social media posts on the service’s primary account across a three-month period. “No” indicates the agency never or rarely responds to comments; “partially” indicates the agency responds sometimes, but not consistently; and “yes” indicates the agency responds to comments on a frequent and consistent basis.
- Access online information and support in languages other than English.
- Criteria: “No” indicates content is available only in English and translation features are not available on the website; “partially” indicates that some content or services are available in English and Spanish; “yes” indicates that content or services are available in English and Spanish and additional languages.
Listening to Customers and Acting on Feedback
To understand and prioritize customer needs, agencies should collect, publish, analyze and act on feedback.
The agency:
- Collects meaningful customer experience data across interactions and service delivery channels and shares it with the public.
- Criteria: In alignment with the Office of Management and Budget’s guidance on customer experience measurement, the agency shares customer feedback with the public and that: a) represents multiple service delivery channels b) provides details into different aspects of the experience (i.e., beyond overall customer satisfaction)
- Criteria: In alignment with the Office of Management and Budget’s guidance on customer experience measurement, the agency shares customer feedback with the public and that: a) represents multiple service delivery channels b) provides details into different aspects of the experience (i.e., beyond overall customer satisfaction)
- Collects and analyzes first-hand customer feedback to understand customers’ experiences, based on their own words.
- Criteria: In alignment with Office of Management and Budget’s guidance on customer experience measurement, in customer or user research such as interviews, focus groups, surveys and other feedback mechanisms, customers can describe their experiences in their own words, and the agency has automated analytic capabilities to identify and act on insights that emerge from customer feedback data.
- Criteria: In alignment with Office of Management and Budget’s guidance on customer experience measurement, in customer or user research such as interviews, focus groups, surveys and other feedback mechanisms, customers can describe their experiences in their own words, and the agency has automated analytic capabilities to identify and act on insights that emerge from customer feedback data.
- Aggregates and analyzes customer feedback across channels and programs, and shares feedback with relevant staff members so they can act on it.
- Criteria: Agency has an automated system to collect feedback across multiple channels and programs into a centralized location, analyze it for insights, and share those insights with relevant agency business owners or other appropriate colleagues responsible for taking action. The agency also tracks the impact of actions taken in response to customer feedback.
This customer experience profile was produced in collaboration with Accenture Federal Services.