Polytechnic University of the Philippines

QUALITATIVE INQUIRY TO SUITABILITY AND

5 PLAUSIBILITY OF IMPLEMENTATION OF
TELECOMMUTING IN THE BUREAU OF PATENTS,
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY OFFICE OF THE
PHILIPPINES

10

Jonathan Rey A. Ibale

A Master’s Concept Paper Submitted to

15 Dr. Marianito Gallego Jr., Ph.D.
Polytechnic University of the Philippines—Graduate School,
Sta. Mesa, Manila

In Partial Requirement of the Requirements for

20 IEM 628 (Product and Process Design and Development)

May 2019
 INTRODUCTION

Telecommuting

5 Telecommuting or telework is a system which employs a work flexibility

arrangement utilizing a mobile workplace. Under the Telework Enhancement Act
of 2010 in America, telework involves the performance of official duties and
responsibilities of the employee or official in “approved worksites other than the
original office location”. (US-OPM, What is telework?, 2014) Notably, Philippine
10 Constitution appears to have also ratified a similar bill defining aspects of
telecommuting, though this applies explicitly to the private sector only, aptly
named as “An Act Institutionalizing Telecommuting as an Alternative Work
Arrangement for Employees in the Private Sector”. (Philippine Congress, 2018)
Therein, telework is described as “a work arrangement that allows an
15 employee… to work from an alternative workplace with the use of
telecommunication and/or computer technologies”. Interestingly, telecommuting
includes several other similar and equivalent designs that utilize just as
extensively an alternative workspace and technological support, including
distributed work, flexible work arrangements, remote work, telework, and virtual
20 teams. All of these however allow or use a remote working location and/or
unbound working period employing telecommunications technology to maintain
connectivity within the professional/organizational network (Allen, Golden , &
Shockley, 2015). For simplicity, both telecommuting and telework shall be terms
used primarily in this article where meanings of either shall be treated
25 interchangeably.

Since the advent of the rapidly developing technological sector around the late
19th century, especially with the conception of virtual networks around the 1980s
(Ngram, 2013), workplace development has been migrating towards less
30 conventional workplace systems that requisitely rely on a geographical standard
for performance. Ultimately, telework is established to attain flexibility in function

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 and resource utilization whilst maintaining, preferably improving, performance
and efficiency of throughput. (US-OPM, Telework Enhancement Act, 2015)

In the field of intellectual property management, the US Patent and Trademark

5 Office has been a leading institution that exploits teleworking systems to
augment its functional capacities while optimizing its resources. (Hershkowitz,
2017) It allowed the organization to employ a wider range of individuals by
promoting greater work flexibility, offering a better work-life balance in
consequence, reduced stress load, and perhaps even an expansion of age
10 allowances and inclusion of people with disabilities. Operational continuity and
output quality may also be increased given that employees now may not be
easily affected by external factors that may have inhibited work, such as bleak
weather or official holidays. The economic advantages of telework also goes both
ways in that employees may save on commuting expenses and avoid time
15 delays and additional fees such relocating to a nearby location, and the
employers may streamline costs for reduction of real estate expenses, reduced
employee turnover (which is proportional to costs for new personnel training),
and continuous throughput maximizing used resources. (St. Paul High School,
Bresbrook, 2018; Loubier, 2017)
20
Patent Examination in the Bureau of Patents, Intellectual Property of the
Philippines (BOP-IPOPhil)

The Bureau of Patents of the Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines has
25 been recently designated as an International Searching Authority and
International Preliminary Examining Authority under Agreement with the
International Bureau of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) in
force since May 20, 2019 (PH/IB, Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines
and International Bureau of the World Intellectual Property Office, 2018). In this
30 regard the office now extends its capacities as a National Office to include as
well functions as a Receiving office for International Applications under the

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 Patent Cooperation Treaty and as a pioneer examiner of such applications when
assigned as so.

Now situated in the forefront of intellectual property management in Asia, the

5 Bureau is expected to significantly increase its workload and requisite output
considering that the region comprises 57.2% of international patent filings as of
2017 with 73.8% resident share and with an average growth of 6.8 % within a 10-
year period. (World Intellectual Property Organization, 2018)

10 Notably, the Bureau in this effect has upgraded its Examiners’ competencies
through several trainings in search and examination, both in terms of the Best
Practices in the field of Patent examination in general as well as in technology
specific categories including biotechnology, bioinformatics, pharmaceutical and
chemical inventions, computer-related inventions and electronics. However,
15 individual professional competency may not be the only factor necessary in the
pursuit for excellence in the field.

Of note, the office still maintains a conventional workspace practice that requires
its patent examiners to perform their duties in the office location within a relatively
20 isolated business district, i.e. within McKinley Hill Town Center, Fort Bonifacio,
Taguig City, as compared with other government institutions often located within
city centers and are more easily accessible. This considerably adds a challenge
to the current examiners who may live outside the city given the state of traffic,
the costs incurred thereof, and the inconvenience and stressed that it contributes
25 before and after a day’s duty. This also adds a disadvantage in the expansion of
workforce as ease of transportation appears to be a vital deciding factor for
potential recruits.

As such, the suitability and plausibility of engaging in a telework system shall be

30 considered herein with regard to improvement of capacities of the Bureau as may
be associated to work-life balance and economies of time and financial resources

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 and as may be reflected in total output volume and quality of patents produced.
In theory, the utilization of a remote-based workplace system as in telework
allows for a decrease in employee attrition and increase in productivity while also
contributing to overall budget economy of both the Bureau and the employees.
5 Given the current momentum of the Bureau in its development from a National
Office and a member of WIPO to an International Searching Authority and
International Preliminary Examining Authority, it is plausible and suitable to
engage in telework to expand its functional capacity and meet future surge of
demands as an international IP office.
10
It should be noted that this inquiry shall be limited only to the examination
practice of the Bureau of Patents of the Intellectual Property Office of the
Philippines. Being only newly designated as an international authority, said
examination practice shall be primarily that which is in current implementation
15 without direct consideration of any new practices that is directly influenced by the
functional upgrade of the Bureau.

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5
 REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

Telework in the Industry

5
The US Patent and Trademark Office remains a landmark institution which
exhibits the possibility of the use of teleworking or telecommuting in patent
examination. Their system has been recognized with 4 awards acknowledged for
its performance of using telework and its impact on government, namely the
10 “2001 Commuter Connections Employee Recognition Telework Award from the
Metropolitan Council of Governments”, “2003 Best Organization for Teleworkers
Award, sponsored by the Mid-Atlantic Telework Advisory Council (MATAC)”,
“2004 Telework in the Federal Government Leadership Award, presented during
the Telework in Federal Government Conference,” and “2006 Telework
15 Exchange Tele-Vision Award - Telework Program with the Maximum Impact on
Government” (Council on Technology Services: Mobile Workforce Workgroup,
2007).

Beginning with a pilot program in 1997 by the trademarks organization within

20 USPTO under the direction of Atty. Deborah Cohn participated by 18 examining
attorneys, the patents organization, beginning its own pilot in 1998, has reached
a total of 8 910 patent teleworkers that represents 93.94% of the patent positions
eligible for teleworking where 5 712 patent positions are teleworking specifically
for 4 or 5 days per week (Ketter, 2013; Telework Program Office (USPTO), 2017;
25 Konkel, 2013). Since its pilot implementation, the growth of telework eligibile
positions in the USPTO has been continuous leading up to 94.66% in 2017 or up
to 11 893 teleworking positions of which 11 105 actively teleworking. (Telework
Program Office (USPTO), 2017).

30 Now at running for over 20 years, USPTO offers mainly two telework programs to
its patent examiners with augment schemes that ensure the protection of the

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 examiners/judges and the Organization. Such programs are the Patents
Telework Program (PTP), which primarily entails near full time outpost
workplaces, and the Patent Hoteling Program (PHP), hoteling herein refers to the
process of reservation of an office space whenever a teleworker visits and works
5 in the office. The two programs vary in their eligibility requirements,
encompassing location relative to any USPTO office, years of service, and pay
schedules, though principles to the guidelines are broadly similar.

Other than the pioneering work by USPTO, interest in the use of telework in the
10 practice is becoming prevalent in different IP offices. In the promotion of telework
as an auxiliary system to intellectual property management, international efforts
by USPTO have been extended to South Asian IP Office, INPI France, IP
Australia, and Japan Patent Office (US Patent and Trademark Office, 2016).

15 Among the other of the five largest IP offices, the European Patent Office (EPO),
Japan Patent Office (JPO), Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO), the
National Intellectual Property Administration of the People’s Republic of China,
and USPTO (IP Forum, 2017), have the beginnings therein of a system-wide
implementation of teleworking systems in their various practices involving part-
20 time work and outpost works. Being situated in core regions of technological
development, these offices inevitably grew their institutions as the demand for a
broader intellectual property management grows which comes to be proportional
to growth of the employees and workplace complexity. Technology-driven
workplace and management reinvention has then become a convergent
25 development though various challenges exist thereof.

Within the European Patent Office, a part-time home working scheme has been
in implementation introduced in 2012 garnered support with participants
amounting to 27% of all employees or 18 00 participants in 2018. Unlike USPTO
30 however, the current scheme is a non-statutory based system, and instead an

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 HR initiative intended to improve work-life balance and also professional
efficiency of the employees. (President of the European Patent Office, 2018)

With KIPO, other than the consideration of the legality of adopting the system
5 with regard to the export of documents from KIPO premises (Article 217 of the
Korea Patent Act), the issue of data security and enablement of an online
examination system that allows protected access of data from KIPOnet outside
was a big concern. The implementation of KIPOnet and its auxiliary sites since
March 2006 has since become a benchmark for teleworking in the country. (Kim,
10 2007; Technical Cooperation Division KIPO, 2010)

Indicators of System Growth and Development in the Implementation of

Telework

15 Success is indicated primarily by retention of examiners with low attrition rates

while also maintaining pendency rates in consequent to examiners’ ability to now
extend working hours where they would have instead been commuting.
Operational continuity has been an indicative benefit as uncontrollable external
factors that may inhibit office function, such as weather or holidays, are
20 overcome. As teleworking allows for spatial consolidation of the conventional
workspace, reduction of real estate costs appear to also be a universal indicator
of success in the implementation of telework, though this may reflect to
management optimization in general for the entire organization. (Telework
Program Office (USPTO), 2017)
25
In any of the existing systems, common results aimed for and/or achieved are
work-life balance of employees expected to reduce employee attrition and
decrease employee turnover, improvement of product quality, decrease in
pendency, and also financial economies (European Union Intelectual Property
30 Office, 2016; Telework Program Office (USPTO), 2017).

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 As highlighted in the case study by the Australian Public Service Commission
(APS) of IP Australia’s implementation of the teleworking, the value of reduced
employee attrition and turnover is reflected and weighed against the return of
investment of the institution per employee. Where ROI is estimated roughly to be
5 three years of duty performance after an initial training investment of two years, it
is critical that employee welfare is optimized as turnover is observed often around
three to five years into employment (Australian Public Service Commission,
2013)

10 In essence, telework key performance indicators include (i) personnel

engagement, (ii) productivity, (iii) system efficiency and ergonomics, and (iv)
overall decrease and optimization of expenditure. (Australian Public Service
Commission, 2013)

15 Active Variables in the Implementation of Telework

In administration of the system and maintenance of employee integrity and

professionalism, required human resource quality management activities are
regular meeting attendance and scheduled/quota periodic report in Office, and/or
20 use of work tracking systems that involves virtual offices. Effort is also given for
the training of personnel engaged before and during period of teleworking. (US
Patent and Trademark Office, 2016)

Managers apparently play a vital role in the success of telework implementation.

25 They are required to maintain connectivity and compliance of the teleworker with
office performance outlook and to monitor individual performance in terms of
productivity and commitment to requirements including attendance to
regular/scheduled meetings and trainings. (Australian Public Service Commission,
2013)
30

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 The development of the correspondence medium between the office and its
telecommuters is only one part of the equation however. The necessity of the
provision and foundation of a secure, complete, and manageable network system
has been sufficiently emphasized in the development of KIPOnet. (Technical
5 Cooperation Division KIPO, 2010)

Teleworking conditions may then be fundamentally implemented with the

integration of (i) personnel training for telecommute, (ii) optimization of distance
management of personnel, and (iii) implementation and/or development of
10 technological framework for the system.

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 METHOLODOGY

Contemporary Institutional Biases

5 The study shall primarily revolve around ascertainment of implementation bias

and assessment of suitability and plausibility of implementation in the Bureau of a
teleworking scheme for intellectual property management, specifically for patents.

First, a disclosure of the organizational and operational configuration of the

10 Bureau of Patents in the Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines shall be
delineated in comparison to (i) its affiliate government departments or
organizations within the Science and Technology industry and (ii) regional IP
offices, i.e. Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) IP Offices.

15 In the assessment of bias of the implementation of the system, the necessity of

comparing organizational and operational similarities with contemporary agencies
is necessary to gauge the extent of novelty of a teleworking system to a
Philippine government agency especially that in the S&T field and/or the proclivity
of IP Offices in the ASEAN region which have relatively similar socio-economic,
20 political, and technological capacities (Enteria, 2013; Center for Research and
Development Strategy, 2015; Menon, et al., 2016). In addition to institutional
situation, the legal niche influencing the implementation of a possibly pioneering
scheme shall also be considered thereafter as statutory prejudice may easily
incapacitate the endeavour from its very conception.
25
Followed by climate ascertainment with regards to legal, organizational, and
operational features of the scheme, qualitative bias shall be formulated in order
to assess possible external pressure or support for the implementation and the
extent of such influence to the current inquiry.
30

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 Factors and Constraints to Teleworking in the Bureau of Patents, IPOPhil

As already discussed in the Introduction, success of implementation is heavily

reliant to the capacity of the institution to implement and foster the new system
5 which includes (a) management structure and function, (b) personnel capacity
and training, and (c) technological structures. The fulfilment of such requirement
may be assessed in both (i) the current internal architecture of the company and
the implements utilized therein and (ii) the company’s potential to procure
required additional structures or upgrade existing models.
10
Factors and constraints considered in this aspect of the inquiry are those
considerably innate to the company such as political and functional flexibility of
current management structure, computer and network technologies in disposal,
best practices considered core and indispensable, quality management and audit
15 processes, capital and budget allocation, concurrency to company outlook,
personnel availability and demographics, ease of hiring and training periods,
office accessibility and geographical factors of location (Mi & Kyun, 2010).
Depending on output of features found and identified, the factor of over-all
company approval of teleworking shall also be inquired.
20
Consolidation of Bias, Factors, and Constraints to Teleworking

Given the inference obtained pertaining to the features delineating the suitability
(qualitative bias) and plausibility (factors and constraints) of the implementation
25 of teleworking in the operations of the Bureau of Patents, IPOPhil, said institution
considerably being a government agency involved in scientific and technological
field within the ASEAN region, the conclusion shall be formulated to render the
external and internal climate for the implementation of teleworking in the Bureau
of Patents, IPOPhil. Such rendering shall also distinguish strengths of the
30 influences to the implementation with regard to the theoretical benefits and the
hypothetical possibility of accomplishing the task.

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 Should the inquiry prove the hypothesis false, aspects of improvement and
recommendations shall be discussed. Otherwise, the rationale of the combination
of driving factors and its faculty to override existing constraints shall be
deliberated as to how teleworking may indeed be implemented successfully given
5 such factors. Notwithstanding above considerations, an optimal model of
implementation and combination of improvements shall be provided with respect
to data gathered.

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