Compared to 2007, the number of commercial searches has declined in all fields. Although the number of technical searches dropped 27 %, the average time taken to carry out each commission has increased. Searches in the trademark databases decreased by about 10 %.

The decline is partly due to a reduction in the number of commissions from some of our larger customers, uncertainty in the market, and the fact that that some of our customers carry out their own online searches. 

Customer surveys

We conduct a survey twice a year for each field - patents, trademarks and designs, to measure customer satisfaction with our commercial search services. During the year we altered the questionnaire to improve feedback and increase the response rate, while at the same time making it easier for us to use this information to make adjustments. We now focus on such critical success factors as quality, service, knowledge, delivery, utility value of customer visits and feedback from the market. It is therefore not possible to compare these latest results with those from earlier surveys. The latest survey did however show a good result.

The total impression for the first half-year 2008, was 4.8 for patents and 5.0 for trademarks and designs, on a scale of 1-6 where 1 is lowest and 6 is highest. This is slightly above our goal. In the second half-year, the scale was changed to 1-4, and certain critical success factors were taken into consideration. See the figure below.

Complaints

In 2008 we received 2 complaints concerning our search services. This is a marked improvement on 2007 when we received a total of 5 complaints.