Insight Our Strategy
In 2021, too, we were able to successfully complete several important measures as part of our strategy process, thereby pushing ahead with the achievement of our strategic goals.
With reference to our fields of action “Customers” and “Products and Services”, two measures are particularly worth highlighting.
We have integrated a powerful translation engine into our patent literature database, which translates Asian texts and enables our patent examiners to conduct full-text searches in Asian patent specifications. Particularly in view of the rapidly increasing number of Chinese patent applications, this is an important step for our office to be able to continue making full use of the state of the art. Read more about it in chapter “Patents”.
In addition, we expanded the submission options for DPMAdirektPro. Our customers were already able to electronically file any documents in the IP procedures. In a second stage of the measure, the possibility to further specify document types was created.
The completion of the above-mentioned measures enabled us to keep our focus on pursuing the strategic goal of the DPMA to offer our customers enhanced usability and to consistently work through our digital roadmap.
Moreover, in the field of action “Customers”, we are working on being able to hold hearings in the examination procedure by using video conferencing. The necessary technical requirements for this are currently being created.
For the field of action “Cooperation projects”, we have advanced the measure “WIPO Communication” further.
From the third quarter of 2022 on, we want to pilot the electronic file management of our administrative work as part of the measure “electronic administrative work”. Subsequently, we will successively switch to electronic file management in the other administrative areas. Using a cloud-based approach, electronic processes and an envisaged interface to the federal archives, we gear our administrative work towards the future.
With this focus on further developing the digitisation of our services, we provide both our applicants and our partner organisations with high-quality, modern and efficient services and tools.
Our Project: Modern control systems shape the future
High-quality services and the greatest possible efficiency: To achieve this goal, the DPMA has been using consistent and robust business processes for several years. All tasks and workflows of the DPMA have been integrated into a digital process portal on the intranet — this offers various benefits to our staff.
The DPMA is a federal authority with various and complex tasks.
Modern business process management has been an integral part of our organisational culture for years, so we can perform these tasks as efficiently as possible. In order to increase the knowledge of our processes within the DPMA, we have established a process portal.
The process portal as a point of concentration of information
The process portal is a pool for the DPMA’s workflows and their connections with the services, organisation, strategy and IT systems of our office.
It helps us provide all our staff with transparency about workflows and competences.
This means that the business processes are the central point of our knowledge. The individual process steps contain all relevant information.
The integrated presentation of the process steps allows guidelines, rules, work instructions and required forms to be found more easily. Prior and subsequent steps as well as competences can easily be viewed too, so it is possible to attribute responsibilities and find interfaces.
Furthermore, the logical relations in the background reveal connections that are not immediately evident.
For example, it is easy to identify the departments that use certain systems. It is also possible to inform them about upcoming changes and involve them in testing new versions. The compilation and update of catalogues of tasks and necessary work equipment is also possible at the push of a button, as it were.
The presentation through process chains allows all of us to better recognise connections and to focus on providing our services in the best possible way.
The process portal is a reliable tool that forms the basis for collecting, sharing and using our comprehensive knowledge. Of particular importance are the various process owners, who gather all information for “their” processes to facilitate process control.
Pioneer among public authorities
Our comprehensive approach to process management, which also integrates the other management systems, makes us a pioneer among public authorities. In view of the expertise and methodology built up at the DPMA over many years, we are an accepted contact and highly respected as such by both the business community and public authorities.
We do not only take a leading role in expert networks and forums. By presenting our system, we also provide other authorities with active administrative assistance in establishing their own process management system.
Our experience has also been considered in the new organisation manual of the federal administration.