The key to an effective quality management system is to be able to effectively monitor our processes and products. Measurement of service and product delivery elements is primarily the responsibility of each Business Group in IP Australia.

To provide a common understanding of the results that are obtained and reported on, the following categories are used in IP Australia to measure and analyse the results from quality assessments:

Category	Description
Critical	These are errors (Findings) that have either already impacted on the validity of an IP Right or would have done so if they had gone undetected. Errors (Findings) in this category have the potential to be severely detrimental to a customer or to IP Australia either financially or otherwise.
Moderate	These are errors (Findings) which will require a considerable amount of rework and/or inconvenience to a customer or to IP Australia but ultimately they would not materially jeopardise the validity of an IP Right.
Minor	These are errors (Findings) which will have limited or minor impact on a customer or to IP Australia and include typographical errors, formatting errors, minor omissions, spelling or punctuation errors. Errors (Findings) in this category can be easily rectified and would not result in the provision of misinformation to a customer.