Patent and Trademark Office, Office of Procurement, Box 6, Washington, DC 20231

D -- PUBLIC KEY CERTIFICATES SOL 52-PAPT-7-00042 POC Becky Morehart, 703/305-8555 There is no intent to award a contract on the basis of this synopsis, therefore NO SOLICITATION DOCUMENT EXISTS. This is a presolicitation MARKET SURVEY to determine whether commercial items or nondevelopmental items are available that could meet the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office's (PTO) possible requirement. The PTO is seeking potential sources to provide digital signature certificate services described as follows: The Trademark Operation and the Office of the Chief Information Officer of the PTO will allow selected trademark customers to submit trademark applications via the Internet. The PTO may determine that customers who submit applications via the Internet should meet the requirement that these applications be signed by associating digital signatures with their applications. The PTO may further determine that these customers must obtain public key certificates from a third party certificate authority (CA) which bear their public keys and which conform that they hold corresponding private keys. The PTO may select one or more CAs as designated providers of public key certificates. In order for the PTO to direct its customers to a particular CA, the CA must meet the following requirements: (1) the CA must issue a certificate which: (a) identifies the CA itself, (b), names the signatory, (d) identifies the signatory's public key, (d) identifies the period for which the certificate is valid, and (e) is itself digitally signed by the issuing CA; (2) The CA must ensure that the person to whom it issued the certificate is who that person represents himself to be; (3) The certificates to be issued must conform to X.509 Version 3; (4) The CA must disclose the limits of the liability it assumes in connection with its issuance of certificates, and must also disclose any qualifications on this liability. Additionally, the CA must furnish a copy of its certification policy and a copy of its certification practice statement to the TO; and (5) The CA must demonstrate that it has had past experience as an issuer of third party certificates. Interested, capable parties should submit responses in writing within seven (7) days of the date of this synopsis to: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, Office of Procurement, Box, 6, Attention: Becky Morehart/52-PAPT-7-00042, Washington, DC 20231. There is no solicitation document available, but all responders should include the number 52-PAPT-7-00042 for identification purposes. If possible, responses should not include proprietary or confidential business information. If proprietary information is included in a response, it must be appropriately marked. The PTO will review all responses and determine the potential usefulness of the described services above to PTO operations and missions. Based upon such determinations, the PTO may contact responders to obtain further information. (0241)

Loren Data Corp. http://www.ld.com (SYN# 0029 19970903\D-0004.SOL)