Attachment_B_DOC52PAPT1200047_POSS_Revised.pdf

DOC52PAPT1200047: PATENT OFFICE SUPPORT SERVICES (POSS)

SECTION B: SUPPLIES OR SERVICES – The following quantities are estimates.

CLIN Description Unit A

Base

Year

B

Option

Year 1

C

Option

Year 2

D

Option

Year 3

E

Option

Year 4

1 File Maintenance

Estimated Annual

Qty (see below)

Reference Refiling Document 0 0 0 0 0

Artifacts Retrieved &

Refiled

File

81,000

72,800

65,200

59,000

54,000

Unit Price Document

Total Price

2 Copying

References Pages 7,000 7,000 7,000 7,000 7,000

Other Pages 60,000 60,000 60,000 60,000 60,000

Office Action Images Pages 40,000 40,000 40,000 40,000 40,000

PCT Pages 800,000 800,000 800,000 800,000 800,000

Unit Price Pages

3 Document Receipt

& Mailing

Outgoing Mail Document 1,746,000 1,852,000 1,945,000 2,042,000 2,140,000

Incoming Mail Document 360,000 378,000 396,900 416,745 437,582

4 Print Working File

Qty

File

167,000

Unit Price File

SECTION B: SUPPLIES OR SERVICES

CLIN Description Unit A

Base

Year

B

Option

Year 1

C

Option

Year 2

D

Option

Year 3

E

Option

Year 4

5 General Clerical

Support * See Note 1

Estimated Annual Qty Staff Hour 34,000 34,000 34,000 34,000 34,000

Suggested Labor

Categories* (see below):

Receptionist*

Proposed Labor

Category

Secretary 1*

Secretary 2*

Secretary 3*

General Clerk 2*

General Clerk 3*

Total Hours

6 Incoming Mail

Processing

Estimated Annual Qty

(see below)

US Received Envelope 124,000 118,000 112,000 106,000 101,000

PCT Received Envelope 92,000 87,000 83,000 79,000 75,000

Faxes Received Fax 52,000 49,000 47,000 45,000 43,000

Unit Price Envelope

CLIN Description Unit A

Base

Year

B

Option

Year 1

C

Option

Year 2

D

Option

Year 3

E

Option

Year 4

6a Customer Service

Window *See Note

Staff Hour 4,030 4,030 4,030 4,030 4,030

Suggested Labor

Categories* (see below):

General Clerk 2*

General Clerk 3*

Total Hours 4,030 4,030 4,030 4,030 4,030

7 Fee Collection

7a New Applications

US Application 35,000 33,000 31,000 29,000 28,000

PCT Application 5,100 5,000 5,000 5,000 5,000

Unit Price Application

7b Other

US Document 78,000 74,000 70,000 67,000 64,000

PCT Document 4,000 4,000 4,000 4,000 4,000

Refunds Processed Refund 4,000 4,000 4,000 4,000 4,000

SCHEDULE B: SUPPLIES OR SERVICES

CLIN Description Unit A

Base

Year

B

Option

Year 1

C

Option

Year 2

D

Option

Year 3

E

Option

Year 4

8 Formality Review

8a New Applications

Utility Application 370,000 405,000 430,000 460,000 480,000

Design Application 30,000 32,000 34,000 36,000 38,000

Provisional Application 120,000 130,000 140,000 150,000 160,000

USPTO form SB/69 Application 800 1,200 1,600 2,000 2,400

8b Follow-On

Documents

Missing Part responses

Document 160,000 168,000 176,000 185,000 194,000

Change of Address

Requests

Document 36,000 38,000 40,000 42,000 44,000

Corrected filing receipts Requests

Document 23,000 24,000 25,000 26,000 27,000

Revocation/POA

Requests

Document 230,000 242,000 254,000 267,000 280,000

PDX Request Document 129,000 135,000 142,000 149,000 156,000

USPTO form SB/69 Document 800 1,200 1,600 2,000 2,400

9 PCT 371 BIB Data

Entry & Mailing

Files Key Application 90,000 95,000 100,000 105,000 110,000

CLIN Description Unit A

Base

Year

B

Option

Year 1

C

Option

Year 2

D

Option

Year 3

E

Option

Year 4

10 PCT International

BIB Data Entry

International Application 53,000 56,000 59,000 62,000 65,000

11 PCT Printing &

Mailing

Outgoing Office

Action

Document 130,000 133,000 136,000 139,000 141,000

12 Courier Support

Month

Unit Price (per month)

Vehicle

13 Project

Management

Staff - Patents

Month

Unit Price Month

14 Transitioning Plan**

**If Offeror does not intend to charge the USPTO, enter “NSP” under the “Base Year” column

*Notes 1 & 2: For CLIN 5, 34,000 hours are the total estimated annual hours. Labor categories provided are suggestions only. Section C.2.5. specifies the number of positions required for each office under CLIN 5. For CLIN 6, 4,030 hours are the total estimated annual hours and the labor categories are suggestions only.

SECTION C - DESCRIPTION/SPECIFICATIONS/STATEMENT OF WORK

C.1 STATEMENT OF WORK/SPECIFICATIONS

The Contractor shall furnish the necessary personnel, material, equipment, services, and facilities (except as otherwise provided or specified) to perform the following Statement of

Work (SOW)/Specifications.

C.2 SCOPE OF WORK

(a) The objective of this procurement is to obtain mission essential services in support of patent application processing. Requirements include receiving and processing United States

(U.S.) and international applications and application-related papers; maintaining miscellaneous paper files, collecting fees and updating electronic financial records;

monitoring electronic mailboxes and managing, forwarding, and closing messages; mailing examiner office actions and other documents; conducting legal and content reviews of newly submitted applications and follow-on documents for USPTO compliance and completeness, creating electronic bibliographic data records, and preparing and mailing notices to applicants; copying technical references, application documents and other materials; printing and delivering working files for examiner use, sorting and delivering incoming mail and other materials; and locating and delivering residual paper application files in response to requests or in order to match incoming papers.

(b) In 2003, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) started implementation of the Image File Wrapper (IFW) system. Patent applications that are processed using IFW are called IFW applications in this Statement of Work (SOW). Some parts of IFW applications including some drawings and text files, may be stored in the Supplemental

Complex Repository for Examiners (SCORE) system. Other parts of an IFW application such as color drawings, confidential information, or non-paper objects that are not in the IFW database or in SCORE are put in an Artifact Files. Nearly all pending patent applications are now IFW. A non-IFW, paper application, would not normally have content in SCORE or any artifact files. The Office may convert a residual paper application to IFW. A residual paper application is one filed prior to the date that the Office started scanning the specific information type into IFW and has not yet been converted to IFW. When the Office converts a paper file to IFW, some of the content may be placed in SCORE and/or artifact files.

(c)This statement of work covers processing of both IFW and residual paper applications, however, nearly all of the work is for IFW applications. The majority of patent applications and follow-on documents are submitted using the Electronic Web filing systems (EFS).

These submissions are converted into electronic images and are stored in the IFW system and some drawings and all text files are loaded in SCORE. The IFW and SCORE systems are used for all stages of the application examination process. The minority of patent applications and follow-on documents are received in the mail, walk-up window, or by fax. The office converts the paper documents to electronic images for IFW and SCORE where the processing is the same as an EFS Web filed application or document. Applications and follow-on documents received in paper may also have an artifact file that contains items that are not scanned into IFW or scanned or loaded into SCORE. The artifact files are also used for examination. The Office expects an increase in electronically filed documents and a decrease in paper or fax documents during the life of the contract. A very small number of patent applications still remain in paper for various reasons. The contractor is required to perform the appropriate processing for both paper and IFW applications. The USPTO is continuously working on upgrading information technology (IT). It is anticipated that most IT systems referenced in this SOW will be replaced or significantly upgraded during the life of this contract.

C.2.1 FILE MAINTENANCE (CLIN 1: Base Year, Option Year 1, Option Year 2, Option Year 3 & Option Year 4)

On-site Search File Maintenance

(a) Nearly all examiner searches are made using electronic databases. A relatively very small collection of references that are not available electronically are maintained in paper as the examiner search file (ESF). The examiners' search file currently contains foreign patent documents and non-patent literature (NPL) which are searched by patent examiners and other users to identify existing prior art. The examiner search file (ESF) is housed in the concourse level of the Randolph Building in Alexandria, VA. Given the very low usage of the ESF, the

Office may eliminate ESF collections and ESF locations before or during the life of the contract. The ESF is housed in storage cabinets containing multiple drawers arranged in columns. These cabinets are commonly called "shoecases" and the individual drawers are referred to as "shoes." Each shoe is labeled to provide for easy identification of its contents.

Shoecases are built of metal or wood, typically in two (2) or three (3) sections. The average shoecase consists of three (3) columns holding a total of approximately 81 shoes; however, some shoecases exist which consist of two (2) or four (4) columns of shoes. Shoes are utilized within each column from top to bottom. Each shoe is equipped with a label holder into which the appropriate label (also called a "shoe tag") is inserted. A pink label identifies a shoe containing foreign patent documents filed by US classification; a yellow label identifies a shoe containing foreign patent documents filed on the basis of the International Patent

Classification (IPC) system; a blue label identifies a shoe containing NPL. The Office is working with the European Patent Office on a Cooperative Patent Classification (CPC)

System. During the life of the contract, the Office may decide to eliminate all or part of the

ESF or establish new procedures for filing that may reorganize some or all of it.

(b) Foreign patent documents filed by US classification usually are filed in the shoes in publication date sequence within classification. Foreign patent documents whose filing labels contain a sequence number (a derivative of the publication date) will be filed using this number. All other foreign documents will be filed by reference to the publication data shown on the document. If more than one document contains the same publication date, the documents are filed in alphabetical order, by country, within the publication date. The label on each shoe containing foreign patent documents filed by US classification contains the word

"Foreign" followed by the class/subclass (e.g., 320/23) and the publication date range (e.g., Jan 1993 - Dec. 1993) within the shoe. The label for the first drawer of foreign patent documents in a US classification always begins with "0" as the lower limit; the label for the last drawer always has the upper limit defined as "To Date." Frequently, foreign documents for multiple classifications may be filed in one (1) shoe. In this situation, cardboard sheets should be inserted between the last document of a classification and the first document of the next.

(c) Foreign patent documents filed by IPC also are filed in the shoes in publication date sequence within classification. The label on each such shoe contains the word "Foreign" followed by the IPC Subclass and Group designation (e.g., A61K 001); in many instances a range of IPC designations are cited.

(d) Non-patent literature (NPL) is filed in the shoes immediately behind the foreign documents. Filing of NPL may begin in the last drawer of foreign documents. In this situation, a cardboard sheet is inserted between the foreign and NPL documents and the shoe tag is marked to indicate NPL is in the shoe. NPL are filed in publication date sequence with any undated documents placed behind those with dates.

(e) The contractor shall refile all documents removed from the examiner search file (ESF) as well as initially file materials being added to the ESF. The Office is not currently adding documents to the ESF. In each search room, there is a designated location where documents to be refiled in the ESF can be dropped. The contractor is required to empty these drop boxes daily and shall correctly refile all documents within eight (8) work hours of pickup. During document refiling, the contractor should identify any damaged documents and repair/replace and refile those documents within 16 work hours.

(f) In addition to refiling documents, the contractor shall periodically monitor the condition of each search room and shall promptly take such actions as necessary to insure the neat and orderly condition of that search room; e.g., shifting documents between shoes to eliminate overfilling of a shoe, replacing shoes left lying on top of shoecases or on the floor, and replacing/correcting shoe tags as necessary.

(g) The contractor shall refile documents at minimum accuracy and timeliness levels of 98%.

The Government will randomly inspect the quality and timeliness of the contractor's work.

The contractor shall correct any problems or deficiencies within eight (8) work hours of receiving notification that such exist. The contractor will provide bi-weekly and monthly reports of filing work as required by the Government.

(h) The File room contains national and international patent applications (Search copy-pink, Home copy-buff, and Official copy-blue folders) and related files received prior to 2007. All contractor personnel working in the PCT file room must sign in and out on the Government-provided log sheets. All application files coming into or going out of the file room must have their Patent Application Locating and Monitoring (PALM) location information promptly updated. If PALM is nonoperational, incoming files should not be refilled until the PALM information can be updated; a sheet should be attached to each outgoing file indicating that

PALM was down and the file was not charged to the requester.

(i) Requests for files will be given to the contractor via e-mail or fax machine. The contractor will process any request for five (5) or fewer files and deliver to the requestor within three (3) business days. Requests for more than five (5) files must be processed and delivered to the requestor with five (5) business days. If a file cannot be located in the file room, the contractor will notify the requestor by email within five (5) business days.

(j) Files returned to the file room should be refilled in the appropriate location with five (5) business days of their return to the file room. Within five (5) business days of their receipt, documents to be associated with files will be matched with the appropriate file(s) and refilled or placed for the next mailroom pickup.

(k) The contractor will insure that all application files are accurately filed and will perform housekeeping functions as necessary to insure an orderly file room in which the shelving and work space are efficiently utilized. Shifting of files may be appropriate if shelving space is required for other purposes. Specific instructions and a desired completion time will be provided to the contractor at the start of each project. As requested by the Government, the contractor will conduct a full inventory of the file room and/or work spaces by entering the information for each application file into the PALM system.

Artifact Files

(a) Some application documents (e.g., plant color drawings and confidential references) and non-scannable items (e.g., computer disks) are placed in Artifact Files, which are stored in designated filing areas. Fewer items will require storage in an Artifact File as the Office’s technology improves. Each Artifact File contains a machine readable bar code label containing the application serial number and the appropriate alpha suffixes. A patent application may have one (1), none, or several artifact files associated with it. Artifact files for plant applications are forwarded to the Technology Center (TC) as soon as they are prepared.

All other artifact files are forwarded to the TC as soon as the Office of Patent Application

Processing (OPAP) processing is completed and the applications' PALM status changes to 20 or higher which indicates that the application has completed formality review and has been docketed to the TC. The Contractor receives reports that list the applications in the OIPE File room that are in status 20 or higher and that need to be pulled and sent to the TC file room or the Files Repository. Due to technology improvements, which have decreased and will continue to decrease the number of artifact files being created, the Office plans to consolidate the Office of Initial Patent Examination “OIPE” room. Patent Cooperation Treaty “PCT” files have been consolidated to the file room at the Randolph Building in Alexandria. For this contract, the contractor will merge and manage all artifact files for pending applications in the examination artifact file rooms. As needed, artifact files are retrieved from the file area for use in pre-examination, examination, and post-examination of the related application. Files are rarely required for pre-examination processing; however the contractor will identify and forward all new artifact files from the indexing and scanning contractor containing CDs for review to the CD review staff, currently in OPAP. Following completion of the examination process, artifact files for allowed cases will be ordered from the file room by the Office of

Data Management (ODM) as needed. Artifact files for abandoned and other applications periodically will be purged from the file room and sent to the file repository as directed by the

Government.

(b) The contractor shall insure that all artifact files delivered/returned to a filing area are promptly and accurately refiled within four (4) work hours of receipt; multiple artifact files for the same application must be collocated in the filing area. Prior to returning a file to a shelf, the contractor must update PALM location information by scanning the bar code label containing the application serial number; no artifact file is to be placed on a shelf before its location information is correctly updated. During the filing process, the contractor shall identify any artifact file folder and/or bar code label affixed to the folder that is damaged and shall promptly take the appropriate steps to replace the folder and/or bar code label within four (4) work hours.

(c) An examiner and other authorized personnel may request retrieval of artifact files by either

(1) completing a retrieval request form and placing it in the retrieval request box located in each TC service center or (2) sending an e-mail to the appropriate Outlook mailbox. The contractor shall pick up retrieval requests from each designated drop location a minimum of twice each workday (approximately 9:30 a.m. and 1 p.m.) and shall check the appropriate

Outlook mailboxes for the presence of new requests no less than once each hour during the workday. After retrieving/receiving file requests, the contractor shall promptly locate the requested file, charge it to the new location, and deliver it to the appropriate examiner mailbox or other employee delivery location. Every attempt must be made to locate the requested file. The contractor must deliver all requested files to the designated location(s)

(usually the examiner mailboxes) on the next regularly scheduled pickup/delivery run (e.g., request retrieved in the morning--file delivered in the afternoon; request retrieved in the afternoon--file delivered the next morning). If after eight (8) work hours the contractor is unable to locate the requested file, the contractor shall promptly notify the requester that the file has not been found and that the contractor will continue to search. If the requested file has not been found after 24 work hours, the contractor shall promptly notify the Contracting

Officer Technical Representative (COTR) or other designated Government Representative.

(d) As requested by the Government, the contractor will locate and remove from the artifact file room those artifact files listed on a Government provided report and will deliver the files to the specified location(s) after updating PALM. The contractor will have one (1) month to remove files and send them to the file maintenance location on the concourse location of the

Randolph building. For other locations, the COTR and contractor will mutually agree upon a turnaround time that may be less than one (1) month. The Government also may require the contractor to inventory the contents of any or all of the artifact file areas. Such an inventory will be conducted by scanning the bar code label on each file in order to update the PALM location information. Details (location, required turnaround time, etc.) of each inventory will be mutually agreed upon by the COTR and the contractor prior to initiation of the work.

(e) The contractor shall meet all turnaround times and shall perform the work at a minimum accuracy level of 99%. The Government will randomly inspect the quality and timeliness of the contractor's work. The contractor shall correct any problems or deficiencies within eight

(8) work hours of receiving notification that such exist. The contractor will provide bi-weekly and monthly reports of artifact file retrieval work as required by the Government.

C.2.2 COPYING (CLIN 2: Base Year, Option Year 1, Option Year 2, Option Year 3, and Option Year 4)

Technology Center Copying

(a) Most office actions are automatically loaded into IFW. Some actions including most related to PCT, have not yet been automated and may require the contractor to make a copy of some or all of the office action prior to mailing. During the life of the contract, the government plans to automate more actions and expects the number of actions that require copies made to decline. The government may also make periodic requests for high volume copies. The contractor is required to provide the equipment and material to make these copies. The Government will provide space in the Remsen building at USPTO's Alexandria campus for contractor personnel and equipment in support of this requirement.

IFW Applications except PCT

(a) Almost all actions for non PCT applications are produced by the USPTO electronically using the Office Action Creation System (OACS) electronic red folder (eRed Folder) and will not require the contractor to provide copies. Some newer or uncommon types of office actions have not or will not be automated initially and will require the contractor to process in paper. At least once in the morning and once in the afternoon of each workday, the contractor is required to pick up from designated locations red or colored action folders containing office actions to be copied, mailed, and scanned. For each action, the contractor shall determine the delivery method for the office action. Many office actions are delivered to the applicant electronically and will not require copies. During the life of the contract, it is possible that the majority of actions will be delivered electronically. For the office actions that are not delivered electronically, the contractor must make the necessary copies to have one (1) copy of the action to mail to the applicant and one (1) copy to send for scanning into IFW. The contractor shall disassemble, reproduce, and reassemble all documents requiring copying.

Each copy must be produced on 8 ½" x 11" paper. The copy for mailing should have one (1) staple placed in the upper left-hand corner. The original for scanning should not be stapled.

Copies must be an accurate and complete reproduction of the original with images properly centered and properly stapled together. After confirming that they meet required standards, the contractor shall insert the copies and the source documents into the appropriate action folder and shall deliver the folder to the appropriate location for the next processing phase

(e.g., mailing). The contractor is required to complete all copying and deliver the folder to the designated location no later than eight (8) work hours after folder pickup.

(b) As requested by the Government, the contractor will copy other materials placed in a designated pickup location and containing a Contractor Copying Request Form. Typically, such requests will be for high-volume copying such as biweekly PALM reports or similar materials. Requests for a small number of copies (e.g., one (1) or two (2) copies of one (1) or two (2) pages) should be returned to the Government Representative without action. Required turnaround time will be annotated on the Request Form; however, the Government will not request less than four (4) work hours at any time. If adjustment to the requested turnaround time is desired, the contractor should discuss the request with the Government Representative.

Paper Applications

(a) Although nearly all pending applications have been converted to IFW there may be some residual paper applications that require pickup. At least once in the morning and once in the afternoon of each workday, the contractor is required to pick up paper applications from designated locations containing foreign and/or NPL references to be copied. After taking all retrieved files to the copy equipment area, the contractor must change each file's location in the PALM system before beginning any other work processing. If the PALM system is nonoperational, the contractor should begin processing the work but should update the PALM information as soon as the system becomes operational. Using the information contained on form USPTO-892 as guidance, the contractor shall disassemble, reproduce, and reassemble all documents provided for copying. Each copy must be produced on 8 ½" x 11" or A4 paper and should have one (1) staple placed in the upper left-hand corner. Copies must be legible and complete, possess images which are distinct and properly centered, and be properly stapled together. If the reference copies provided by the examiner are the search file copies or are personal copies to be returned to the examiner, the contractor shall make two (2) copies of each such document - - one (1) for mailing to the applicant and one (1) for inclusion in the application file. If the reference copies provided by the examiner are to be mailed to the applicant, the contractor shall make one (1) copy of each such document for inclusion in the application file; original source documents should be returned promptly to a reference filing pickup location for refiling in the search file, returned to the examiner, or inserted in the application file as appropriate.

(b) The contractor shall verify that all references listed for copying are available in the application file. If listed references are missing, the contractor shall copy those references available, note which references are missing, and return the file to the Government

Representative. The contractor is required to complete all copying and deliver the application file to the designated location no later than eight (8) work hours after file pickup. All files must have their location changed in the PALM system prior to leaving a copy requirement area. If the PALM system is nonoperational, the contractor must insure that when the applications are delivered to the next processing stage the PALM information is updated.

PCT IFW Applications

(a) Many PCT application actions including search reports and written opinions are still produced in paper. The Office plans to move most PCT actions into the electronic processing system. This may occur before the start of the contract or early in the life of the contract.

Once electronic, the copy requirement will decrease significantly. At least once in the morning and once in the afternoon of each workday, the contractor is required to pick up from designated locations pink or colored action folders containing office actions to be copied, mailed, and scanned. Currently all PCT actions are mailed but during the life of the contract, the Office may implement electronic delivery for PCT application office actions. For the office actions that are not delivered electronically, the contractor must make the necessary copies to have one (1) copy of the action to mail to the applicant and one (1) copy to send for indexing and scanning into IFW. The contractor shall disassemble, reproduce, and reassemble all documents requiring copying. The copy to be mailed must be on A4 paper.

The contractor may need to reduce the image to fit on A4 paper. The copy to be scanned may be on 8 ½" x 11" or A4 paper. Each copy to be mailed should have one (1) staple placed in the upper left-hand corner. The original for scanning should not be stapled. Copies must be accurate and complete reproductions of the original, with images properly centered, and properly stapled together. After confirming that they meet required standards, the contractor shall insert the copies and the source documents into the appropriate action folder and shall deliver the folder to the appropriate location for the next processing phase (e.g., mailing). The contractor is required to complete all copying and deliver the folder to the designated location no later than eight (8) work hours after folder pickup.

(b) The contractor shall meet all turnaround times and shall perform copying and copy assembly work at minimum quality and accuracy levels of 98%. The Government will randomly inspect the quality and timeliness of the contractor's work. The contractor shall correct any problems or deficiencies within eight (8) hours of receiving notification that such exist. Copying work which must be redone will be at no charge to the Government. The contractor will provide bi-weekly and monthly reports of copying and/or copy assembly work as required by the Government.

C.2.3 DOCUMENT RECEIPT AND MAIL (CLIN 3: Base Year, Option Year 1, Option

Year 2, Option Year 3 and Option Year 4)

(a) The TC mailroom is located in the Concourse level of the Remsen building which is one

(1) of the four (4) buildings (Jefferson, Remsen, Randolph, and Knox) at USPTO's Carlyle campus which house patent examiners. Mail is delivered to the mailroom at least twice each day. TC outgoing mail is delivered to this mailroom from which mail center personnel retrieve it from the TC Service Center and other designated locations and take it to the mail center for metering and pickup by the U.S. Post Office. The contractor is required to staff the

TC mailroom and process both incoming and outgoing mail.

(b) The contractor shall sort all incoming mail, deliver it to designated locations, and place it in the appropriate mail boxes or other areas. All incoming mail shall be delivered within two

(2) work hours of receipt in the mailroom.

(c) Once each morning and once each afternoon, the contractor shall perform pickups and deliveries within the tech centers and to other designated locations within the USPTO

Alexandria campus. Materials retrieved during pickups must be delivered to designated

Carlyle locations no later than during the next scheduled pickup/delivery. Materials retrieved during pickups and which require delivery between the Randolph Square Building

(Shirlington) in Arlington, VA and Carlyle must be transported to the other building no later than the next scheduled courier run; delivery to the designated location in either location must occur no later than the next scheduled delivery run in that building. Only the following locations are approved for pickups/deliveries by the contractor errand runners:

Internal Tech Center locations

· Director's office,

· Examiner mailboxes (not individual examiner offices), Service Centers

· Classification unit,

· Head Supervisory Legal Instruments Examiner (HSLIE) offices

· Paralegal office,

· Special Program Examiner (SPRE) office,

· Supervisory Patent Examiner (SPE) offices,

· Tech Support Team Leader,

· License and Review;

Other USPTO Locations

· COTR,

· Office of Human Resources,

· Scientific and Technical Information Center,

· File Information Unit (FIU)-Record Room,

· Office of Petitions,

· Commissioner and Deputy Commissioners for Patents,

· Office of Patent Application Processing

· PCT Operations,

· Office of Data Management,

· Patent Academy.

(d) The contractor shall direct to the COTR all requests for deliveries to locations not listed above.

(e) The contractor will receive paper copies of references that the examiner wants to include in an OACS eRed Folder office action with a request for the contractor to convert the document to a PDF. The contractor will retrieve the requests from the pick-up boxes in the service centers, scan the document using government furnished equipment, and send an e-mail to the examiner with the PDF file attached. The contractor shall return the paper copy to the examiner. Scanned PDFs must be e-mailed to the examiner and paper copy returned to the examiner no later than eight (8) work hours after documents to be scanned are retrieved from the drop off box.

(f) The contractor shall institute such quality checks as are required and shall perform all PDF file creation at minimum quality and accuracy levels of 98%, and a minimum timeliness level of 98%. The Government will randomly inspect the contractor's work. The contractor is required to correct any problems or deficiencies within four (4) work hours of receiving notification that such exist. Work to correct contractor-generated errors will not be charged to the Government. The contractor will provide daily, weekly and/or monthly reports of scanning work as required by the Government. Most outgoing actions that the contractor is responsible for mailing are produced electronically using OACS eRed Folder. Currently the eRed Folder actions print on multiple printers in the contractor’s area continuously throughout the day. Other actions that require mailing, the contractor retrieves in file wrappers or folders from designated pick-up locations at least twice per day and makes copies as required under

C.2.2. For any paper application received, the contractor must update the PALM location.

An Office action usually set a response period that directly impacts patent pendency. An

Office high priority is to reduce patent pendency. Also, patent examiners have production requirements and measurement points at the end of each bi-week, quarter, mid-year, and end of year. The contractor will need to adjust to high volumes expected during these periods and still meet processing time requirements.

(g) The contractor will review office actions prior to mailing.

Review the Office Action Summary (PTO-326 or PTO-90) and determine if there are attachments to be mailed; verify all attachments are present. Promptly return the office actions to the Government if any of the noted attachments are missing; if any attachments appear to not belong with the office action; if disbursement of attachments has not been clearly identified; or any other problems exist which would prevent the prompt, accurate mailing of the office action.

Verify the last page of the office action contains the examiner signature. Promptly return to the Government any office action that has not been properly signed by the examiner.

Determine whether a Notice of References Cited (PTO-892) and related reference are present. If the PTO-892 is hand-written, return the action to the Government. If the examiner has cited foreign or NPL references which will be mailed with the office action (US references are not mailed with office actions), this form along with one (1) copy of each cited reference must be present. Promptly return the action to the

Government Representative if any of the cited references are not present or if references are present which are not cited. If more than one (1) copy of any reference is present, check with the Government Representative to verify disposition of the additional copies.

Verify that the office action is complete and legible. Pages in an office action are normally sequentially numbered. Promptly return the action to the Government if the office action is incomplete or illegible.

(h) After completing the verification process, the contractor will prepare the action for mailing. The contactor will determine if the delivery method is electronic or mail. If mail, the contractor must determine the number of envelopes required to mail the office action and any references and attachments. This number will determine the number of copies of the

PTO-90 which must be printed. The contractor will use PALM EXPO to print the action for mailing. The contactor will select the action to mail and the number of copies. The PTO-90 will print with the appropriate mailing date (if before 2 p.m.; next business day if after 2 p.m.

or next business day date box is checked). The PTO-90 will show the correspondence address of the attorney or applicant of record, and the statutory period to respond to the office action.

(i) The contractor shall quality check the printed document to insure the printed information is appropriately placed and clearly readable; if it is not, the contractor must reprint the form in the required manner. If PALM does not print the desired action and displays an error message

(e.g., The system has no action to mail), the contractor should not make a second attempt.

(j) The office action along with a screen print showing the error message shall be promptly returned to the Government Representative.

(k) After printing the PTO-90 form, and if the delivery method is electronic, the contractor should discard the action. The applicant will receive an e-mail notification that they have an office action and they can access the office action in Private Patent Application Information

Retrieval (PAIR). If the delivery method is mail, the contractor shall assemble the form, the office action, and any attachments and references and fold and insert into the appropriate size window envelope (i.e., piggyback if there are reference copies, legal-size white window envelope if there are not) the copy of the office action. If using a piggyback envelope, the contractor shall insert the references and all but the first page of the office action into the large envelope and shall fold and insert the first page of the office action in the window portion of the envelope, ensuring that the mailing address is clearly visible in the address window.

When an office action is mailed in multiple envelopes, each envelope must be appropriately marked; e.g., 1 of 2, 2 of 2, etc.

(l) Prior to inserting them in the appropriate mailing envelope, the contractor shall verify the presence of all required documents to be mailed, insure all documents meet required quality standards, and verify that the name and serial number printed on the PTO-90 form agree with the name and serial number on the office action. The envelope should then be securely sealed and placed in the designated mail pickup location.

(m) The contractor will use PALM EXPO to print a Notice of Allowance for mailing. The

Notice of Allowance printing process does not print a PTO-90. The contractor shall quality check the printed document to insure the printed information is appropriately placed and clearly readable; if it is not, the contractor must reprint the form in the required manner.

(n) When an office action is printed from PALM prior to 2:00 p.m., the current day's date will print on the document. In order to insure that the metered date applied in the mail center will be the same as the date printed on the document, the contractor must insure that these documents are processed in sufficient time for the Mail Center to retrieve the envelopes and apply the postage meter prior to pick up by the U.S. Post Office. If an office action is printed after 2:00 p.m., the next business day's date will print on the document. In order to insure the document date and the postage meter date agree, the contractor must hold the envelopes for pickup by the mail center the next day.

(o) The contractor will monitor the OACS eRed Folder printing process and take steps to resolve infrequent but recurring problems with known solutions. To identify and resolve these problems, the contractor will monitor daily reports and print actions that failed to print automatically. The contractor will evaluate error messages and take steps to identify defective documents and take appropriate action to obtain replacements. As the USPTO changes the system, some recurring problems will be fixed but new ones may be created.

(p) Prior to contract award or during the life of the contract, the government plans to change the contractor review process from paper to electronic. The government may also determine after system and process improvements that the quality of the office actions is sufficient as to not require contractor review.

(q) Most office actions that are not electronically processed using OACS eRed Folder are in red, pink, or other color office action folders. The contractor will perform the same quality checks and mailing process as for the eRed Folder actions. If a red action folder is returned to the Government for correction, it is recommended that the contractor maintain a record of all folders returned and when they are received back from the Government. Office action folders are not automatically loaded into IFW, so the contractor may need to make a copy of the office action as described in C.2.2 prior to mailing. For color action folders, the contractor will assemble one (1) copy of the office action, form, and any attachments and references in the office action folder. After mailing, the contractor shall place the folder in the designated location for indexing and scanning into IFW. The contractor shall insure the folder and all required documents are placed in the designated pickup location no later than four (4) work hours after completing mailing of the office action.

(r) Nearly all pending patent applications are in IFW but on very rare occasion, the Office may need to mail an office action for a paper file. The contractor will perform the same quality checks and mailing processes as for the eRed Folder office actions. If a paper application is returned to the Government for correction, the contractor will use PALM to dispatch the case to the appropriate team leader. The contractor will insert the office action copy in the right-hand clamp of the file under the prints and insert the reference copies under all papers in the center of the file. The contractor will stamp or write the mail date in the appropriate location on the application file. The contractor will use PALM to dispatch the application to the appropriate location.

(s) The contractor is required to plan his work to account for possible PALM problems and to accomplish required turnaround times despite high volumes of work normally encountered just before and immediately after "count Monday." Note: See Attachment 6 for definition

“count Monday.”

(t) The contractor shall mail all Notices of Allowance within one (1) work day of retrieval from the pickup location and any Accelerated mail notices within one (1) business hour of receipt during business hours. All other mailing processing should be performed immediately following retrieval by the contractor; the contractor shall have the sealed envelopes available for mailroom pickup no later than two (2) work days after retrieval of the work. The contractor shall perform all document receipt and mailing work at minimum quality, timeliness, and accuracy levels of 99%. The contractor shall take any and all steps to insure that mailing is performed as required and to insure that office actions are not erroneously placed in folders and not mailed. The Government will randomly inspect the quality and timeliness of the contractor's work. The contractor shall correct any problems or deficiencies within four (4) work hours of receiving notification that such exist. The contractor will provide daily, weekly and monthly reports of document receipt and mailing work as required by the Government.

C.2.4 PRINT WORKING FILE (CLIN 4: Base Year, Option Year 1, Option Year 2, Option Year 3, and Option Year 4)

(a) The contractor shall monitor the appropriate IFW mailbox(s) in order to promptly identify examiner requests for creation of a working file. For requests from patent examiners, only the following documents are authorized for printing by the contractor and inclusion in a working file: Specification, Abstract, Claims, and/or Drawings. The contractor may also receive requests from the Solicitor’s Office. For the Solicitor’s Office, requests for all IFW documents for inclusion in a working file are authorized. Using Government-provided equipment, the contractor shall print from IFW the requested documents and shall insert these documents into the folders identified for this purpose. In addition, the contractor must print a serial number and bib data label and affix each to the front of the folder. Completed working files must be delivered to the examiner's mailbox, Solicitor’s Office, or other requestor’s location, no later than one (1) work day from the original request.

(b) The contractor shall retrieve from each TC's service centers working files identified for shredding and shall dispose of them in the TC shredding bin. Folders, which are reusable, should be emptied and saved by placing them in close proximity to the working file printer(s).

The contractor may be required to deliver the shredding bins to a designated location when pickup by the shredding contractor is scheduled.

(c) The contractor shall institute such quality checks as are required and shall perform all working file production work at minimum quality and accuracy levels of 100%, and a minimum timeliness level of 98%. The Government will randomly inspect the contractor's work. The contractor is required to correct any problems or deficiencies within four (4) work hours of receiving notification that such exist. Work to correct contractor-generated errors will not be charged to the Government. The contractor will provide daily, weekly and monthly reports of scanning work as required by the Government.

C.2.5. GENERAL SUPPORT (CLIN 5: Base Year, Option Year 1, Option Year 2, Option Year 3 and Option Year 4)

(a) As required by the Government, the contractor shall provide ongoing services in support of patent application examining and processing. Work in this CLIN will support the Office of the Commissioner for Patents (1 position), Office of Petitions (4 positions), Office of PCT

Legal Administration (2 positions), Patent Training Academy (3 positions), File Information

Unit (4 positions), Office of Data Management (3 positions), and other USPTO business units that may require general clerical services not covered in other CLINs. There are currently 17

General Clerical Staff positions needed under this requirement. This may be subject to change based on the need of each business unit. Representative tasks include answering phones, processing examining case transfers, researching PALM to locate application information, and docketing cases to examiners. All work will be performed under the supervision of a Tech Center or other contractor supervisor with technical advice provided by the Government as necessary. The contractor will provide bi-weekly and monthly reports of this work as requested by the Government.

Requirements related to the Office of Petitions include:

processing incoming mail including opening, sorting, and routing within three (3) work hours of receipt;

collecting fees including entering appropriate information into Revenue Accounting and Management (RAM) financial system (Attachment 1), printing information on designated sheet and forwarding for scanning into IFW, providing RAM data information and/or financial documents (e.g., checks) to Finance;

correctly processing petitions received in the office including researching status, identifying file location and ordering file (if paper file), performing other appropriate actions as directed by Paralegal;

maintaining tickler files to monitor due dates and notifying Petitions' personnel when due dates are approaching and/or have passed;

receiving walk-in petitions by going to guard station to accept delivery, stamping receipt date on document, and returning document to office;

escorting non-PTO personnel from the guard station to the Petitions office;

mailing petition decisions and other office actions including updating PALM, stamping documents with mail date, insuring all attachments are mailed, submitting copy of all outgoing documents for indexing and scanning into IFW; and maintaining files and other records as required by Petitions' staff.

Requirements related to the Office of Data Management include:

Ordering and sending files from and to the File Repository

Monitoring IFW electronic mailboxes and closing messages in IFW

Mailing of Issue Notifications and Certificates of Correction each week

(b) The work hours may vary based upon the needs of the specific business unit or job functions. The general clerk support office hours will range from 7:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. The hours of the business units or job functions are subject to change without notice. The contractor will provide daily, bi-weekly and monthly reports for each area supported under this CLIN.

C.2.6 INCOMING MAIL PROCESSING (CLIN 6: Base Year, Option Year 1, Option

Year 2, Option Year 3, and Option Year 4)

(a) The majority of applications and follow-on documents are submitted electronically by applicants using EFS-Web. The Office expects the proportion of documents submitted electronically to increase over the life of this contract. New patent applications and follow-on documents may also be received in the mail or at the walk up window. Follow-on documents may be received by fax. The contractor is responsible for the initial processing of mail, walk-up window, and fax documents usually following the same processes and procedures.

(b) The USPTO has established a Central Fax where most incoming "official" faxes are received. The USPTO also has a specific fax for issue fees.