The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) is a cutting-edge organization dealing with intellectual property issues around the world and serves the economic interests of America for more than 200 years. The USPTO is headquartered in Alexandria, Virginia, and has over 11,000 employees, including engineers, scientists, attorneys, analysts, and IT specialists all dedicated to accomplishing the USPTO mission, vision, strategic goals and guiding principles. The USPTO mission is to grant patents and register trademarks to the general public and business entities, whereby, providing inventors exclusive rights over their discoveries. It is an effort that continues to contribute to a strong global economy, to encourage investment in innovation and to cultivate an entrepreneurial spirit for the 21st century.

The USPTO is conducting market research to assess printing, binding, assembly and distribution service capabilities as they specifically relate to United States Patents and to assess vendor/organization capabilities and interest. This Request for Information (RFI) will explore commercially available services including printing, binding, assembly and distribution for United States Patents, that demonstrates actual experience and validated performance of the requirements as outlined in this RFI.

The subject requirement is being procured using the Alternative Competition Method in accordance with the Patent and Trademark Office Acquisition Guidelines (PTAG) and the Patent and Trademark Office Efficiency Act 35 U.S.C. 2(b)(4)(A). This RFI is intended as preliminary market information gathering which the USPTO will use to determine which vendor(s) is/are the most likely to successfully meet the agency’s needs and are thereby eligible to participate in an alternative competition. As a result of this market research, the solicitation will only be issued to one or more qualified vendor(s).

This RFI is not a request for competitive proposals.

The Government will not utilize formal evaluation criteria for market research associated with PTAG 6.1.1. The Government will review RFI responses to determine which vendors are most likely to successfully meet the agency’s requirements for the USPTO Patent Printing & Assembly Services.