The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) is seeking sources for the Online Legal Journals listed in the attached Statement of Work. The USPTO mission requires the use of Legal research to examine and grant valid patents and trademarks.  The Code of Federal Regulations (37 C.F.R. 1.104(a)) sets forth the requirement that upon taking up an application for examination, patent and trademark, examiners shall make a thorough study and a thorough investigation of the available prior art relating to the subject matter of the claimed invention or trademark.  The federal regulation also states an international type search will be made in all national applications.

The USPTO may use the results obtained from this Sources Sought announcement to support one or more future procurements. Moreover, if a procurement is warranted, then the response to this announcement will be used for the purpose of determining whether a competitive or sole source procurement is appropriate (see Special Procurement Authority Notice below). Additionally, the USPTO may use the results obtained from this Sources Sought to make a small business set-aside determination. This means that if you are a small business and you are able to provide the content described below, your response may be critical in determining whether to set aside any future requirement in part or in total for small businesses. Any small business provider of the content described in this document is strongly encouraged to respond to this announcement.