Digital Delivery of Intellectual Property Services

430. It is clear that developments in digital technologies, and the inter and intranets that they support, have enabled private and public sector enterprises to overhaul their methods for conducting their operations, redefine their services and improve their service delivery.  This move toward using digital systems and the Internet to manage work flow, deliver services and provide enhanced access and interconnection to intellectual property information has been embraced by an increasing number of national and regional intellectual property offices.  In particular, the intellectual property community is increasingly utilizing these technological advances to better exploit, defend and administer their intellectual property rights.  These systems improve not only the procedures through which such rights are acquired and maintained, but increasingly also serve to disseminate information about intellectual property more efficiently and effectively.

431. In common among these initiatives are the issues of integrating new staff with relevant technological expertise, while restructuring existing staff resources;  planning for the integration of the new information technology systems;  implementing hardware and software platforms, many of which can be costly;  addressing security concerns with respect to access, control and exchange of information that become manifest in the digital environment;  and reviewing whether the existing policies, procedures, rules and standards must be revised and updated in light of the new electronic methods used. [566]  This Chapter will examine how a number of these offices are employing the new technologies to transform their delivery of services.

432. This Chapter also provides information