The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) is conducting market research to determine potential commercial products and/or sources/companies to design, develop, and deploy a widely distributed computing system for biosequence alignment and data management. This system must meet the requirements set forth in Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act, be Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS) 140-2 compliant, and would:

•·       Enable examiners to align biosequences using a wide variety of algorithms.

•·       Reduce duplicative biosequence data.

•·       Provide facility for sequence manipulation and editing functions.    

Attached to this announcement is a table which lists the mandatory requirements for this system. 

The USPTO reserves the right to request clarification/demonstration to some vendors if necessary. 

This market research shall be conducted at no cost to the Government.  This announcement is a Request for Information (RFI), not a solicitation for proposals, and accordingly, no contract will be awarded from this announcement.  No reimbursement will be made for any costs associated with providing information in response to this announcement. Telephone calls requesting a solicitation will not be accepted or acknowledged.   

Instructions:  Interested businesses which can provide the above capabilities should respond no later 5:00 p.m., December 17, 2010.  Companies must provide a capabilities statement along with any references from U.S. Federal Government agencies or institutions where they have implemented a widely distributed biosequence alignment system.  Companies are requested to provide any licensing terms and conditions, list prices, and training courses with list prices.  Responses received in response to this announcement that are marked "Proprietary" will be handled accordingly.  Please mail any responses to: 

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, Office of Procurement, Attn: Sylvia Van Dyke, Contracting Officer, Office of Procurement, MDE Room 7B03, P.O. Box 1450, Alexandria, VA 22313-1450, or email:  [email protected].  Please include RFI number DOCSSPAPT1100002 on any correspondence.  Electronic responses should be addressed to:  [email protected].