Department of Commerce, Patent and Trademark Office (PTO), Office of Procurement, Box 6, Washington, DC, 20231

D -- BIOTECHNOLOGY EXTERNAL SUPPORT SOL 52PAPT001016 DUE 082400 POC Raymond Witmer, Contracting Officer, Phone (703) 308-5064, Fax (703) 305-8294, Email raymond.witmer@uspto.gov WEB: Visit this URL for the latest information about this, http://www2.eps.gov/cgi-bin/WebObjects/EPS?ACode=M&ProjID=52PAPT001016&LocID=251. E-MAIL: Raymond Witmer, raymond.witmer@uspto.gov. The purpose of this amendment is to delete in its entirety the combined synopsis/solicitation issued on July 25 for Public Gene Sequence DataBases and Search Services. The Description, Objective, Technical/Functional Requirements, Evaluation, Instructions/Notice to Offerors and Point of Contact paragraphs are hereby replaced in their entirety by the paragraphs given below. Description: This is a combined synopsis/solicitation for commercial services prepared in accordance with FAR _12.6 Streamlined Procedures for Evaluation and Solicitation for Commercial Items as supplemented by the additional information included in this notice. This announcement constitutes the only solicitation; proposals are being requested and a written solicitation will not be issued. Proposals submitted in response to this solicitation shall reference RFP Number 52-PAPT-0-01016. This solicitation incorporates all of the applicable provisions and clauses in effect through Federal Acquisition Circular 97-19 as if stated in full text, as well as the terms and conditions of FAR _52.212-1, Instructions to Offerors for Commercial Items, FAR _52.212-3, Offeror Representations and Certifications -- Commercial Items, FAR _13.3 -- Simplified Acquisition Methods, and the Department of Commerce Agency Level Protest Procedures listed at http://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/ac/comp/. This solicitation will deem acceptable only those services that meet the description of a commercial item as given in FAR _2.101 Definitions. Objective: This is a full and open competitive procurement. The USPTO has a requirement for electronic access to public gene sequence databases and search services using existing computer systems external to the USPTO to support examination of biotechnology patent applications containing genetic sequence information. Use of such services is expected to reduce the escalating costs associated with infrastructure expansion of internal USPTO biotechnology computer systems. The purpose of this solicitation is: (1) to award one ormore purchase orders to those Offerors which possess the best opportunity for award to conduct operational capability demonstration of their product; and (2) based on the results of the OCDs and available funding, award one or more contracts for long term electronically accessible gene sequence searching service. Technical/Functional Requirements: The commercial item services proposed in response to this solicitation must provide USPTO staff with electronic access to sequence searching systems via subscription or any other arrangement equivalent in function. All system(s) must be currently functioning, fully supportive of their internal and external customers, and not created specifically for USPTO use. The minimum performance requirements are that the system(s) must: 1) be accessible 24 hours per day seven days per week (with scheduled maintenance downtime) and provide timely sequence search/search results, i.e., results returned within 24 hours for up to 20,000 searches (i.e., one sequence searched againstone database) per day; 2) display system responses within an average of 10 seconds and transmit those responses to the USPTO's PC-based Pentium class workstations; 3) provide access to standard sequence search tools used in the public domain, including such search algorithms as FASTA, BLAST, Smith-Waterman, FastDB, PFAM and Clustal W; 4) process search query strings as large as 30,000,000 bases; 5) support automated batch submission of searching multiple sequences against multiple databases using user selected predefined parameters (the ability to set up a search of only one sequence against one database at a time is not sufficient to process the expected volume of work); 6) provide a Netscape browser interface to set up and submit the search and display the results (see the Technical Reference Model (TRM) web page at http://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/cio/trm/) which describes PTO browser technical requirements); 7) access the most current versions of public sequence databases including, but not limited to, GenBank, EMBL, DDBJ, SWISS-PROT, and PIR, and provide searches of other commercial databases, including, but not limited to GENESEQ; 8) allow USPTO users to control sequence search parameters and allow interchange of variables with regard to each sequence search; 9) support sequence data queries in the Intelligenetics data format or, alternatively, provide capability to convert the USPTO sequence data queries to the needed format to perform various types of searches such as BLAST, FASTA, Smith-Waterman, etc. as described earlier; 10) provide standard Windows features and be compatible with USPTO automation software (see hyperlink reference in number 6 above); 11) average 1-2 seconds flip-rate from one display screen to the next; 12) integrate new/upgraded software tools capable of searching and evaluating new forms of biosequence information into the existing suite as they become available; and 13) provide secured access to users. The system(s) and its organizational personnel must meet the USPTO's requirementfor confidentiality of patent application information. Moreover, external communication to and from remote sites must use USPTO approved security software and hardware (see hyperlink regarding TRM in number 6 above) for data encryption (e.g., Public Key Infrastructure (PKI)(see security at http://www.uspto.gov/ebc/frame_about.html) or similar technology as proposed by offerors). Highly desirable performance features are that the system should: 1) provide hyperlinks in the search results to US Patents, patents from other patent offices worldwide, and non-patent literature; 2) if desired by USPTO, allow incorporation of the USPTO public information sequence databases as part of the external infrastructure; 3) provide for priority access and search request processing for USPTO's expected high volume of daily search requests; and 4) provide sequence analysis tools. Evaluation: The Government may award contract(s) resulting from this solicitation to the responsible Offeror(s) whose offer(s) conforming to the solicitation will be the most advantageous and represent the best value to the Government, price and other factors considered. The following factors will be used to evaluate offers: (A) technical and functional capability; (B) past performance/experience; and (C) Price. Factor A is more important than Factor B. Factors A and B combined are significantly more important than Factor C for evaluation purposes. Individually, Factor A and Factor B are more important than Factor C. Provided below is the list of evaluation criteria: (A) Technical and functional capability: The proposed commercial service shall demonstrate the technical capabilities and functional requirements stated above. (B) Past Performance/Experience: The proposed commercial service should have high acceptance by both private and/or public sector users and an established history of successful performance in biotechnology external support. (C) Price: Both an OCD pricing plan and a five year pricing plan for long term service are required. Pricing shall be formulated into a single, all-inclusive billing structure that places all services/ requirements into a fully loaded price per individual search, a flat subscription rate, or any other commercial billing algorithm so long as the pricing methodology is fully explained. This breakout should identify one-time charges, if any, including, but not limited to, startup costs and the installation of security features that may not be included in the price algorithm for routine operation. Actual price of productivity will be established in the Operational Capability Demonstration (OCD) during which the Government will pay for use of service and establish an historical record of its productivity Initially, as part of the evaluation, the Offeror's proposal will be subject to a technical review. A no cost validation testing of the Offeror's technical and functional requirements will be conducted. After this initial evaluation, offerors deemed to possess the best opportunity for award may be requested to provide an OCDof its service. If and to the extent that an OCD is conducted, a manageable number of purchase orders(s) may be issued or awarded, the number of which will depend on the ultimate amount of funds available. Using the results of the OCD, the Government will reevaluate those proposals to determine which proposal offers the best value to the Government. Funding is currently available only for OCDs. It is the intention of the Government to award long term contracts if funds become available. As part of the evaluation, Past Performance shall be based on information obtained from the contacts or references with similar requirements provided by the Offeror as well as any other information the Government may have or obtain from other sources. Instructions/Notice to Offerors: Offerors are required to submit one signed and dated hard copy original and four (4) hard copy duplicates of the proposal. An electronic copy of the proposal is highly desired but not mandatory. The proposal shall be brief and concise, limited to20 one-sided pages not counting the required forms listed below, but shall unquestionably demonstrate the Offeror's technical/computing capability and understanding required to perform the effort described herein as well as its experience with providing sequence-searching resources needed to accomplish the services required. The Offeror shall also provide a brief explanation of its recommended technical approach for the accomplishment of the tasks described herein. Pricing plans for both the OCD and the five year long term service shall be submitted in accordance with Evaluation paragraph C herein. The proposal shall also specifically address how the offeror will protect the confidentiality of patent application information and avoid conflict of interest as well as the appearance of conflict of interest (e.g., in the circumstance where offeror may regularly submit patent applications in the biotechnology art). The offeror shall identify three Federal, state, local government, or private contracts or similar arrangements under which it has performed work similar to the requirement described herein. Past performance references should be current contracts or other arrangements completed within the last three [3] years. The offeror shall provide a point of contact including current telephone and fax numbers and e-mail address for each reference. These references must be submitted with the offeror's proposal by the due date stated herein. Proposals shall include a copy of the provision at FAR _52.212-3 Offeror Representation and Certification of Commercial Items, a copy of which may be obtained from the point of contact given below. Proposals shall also include a completed copy of the provision at FAR _52.212-5 Contract Terms and Conditions Required to Implement Statutes or Executive Orders -- Commercial Items. A copy of these provisions may also be obtained by contacting the point of contact identified below. Any award or awards resulting from this announcement will include FAR _52.212-4 Contract Terms and Conditions -- Commercial Items and FAR _52.212-5 Contract Terms and Conditions Required to Implement Statutes or Executive Orders -- Commercial Items, each of which is available from the point of contact identified below. The proposal must include company name and address and the telephone and fax numbers and the e-mail address of the Offeror's point of contact. All proposals must be submitted to Raymond Witmer and must be received by 2:00 PM (EDT) on 24 August 2000. Hard copy materials must be sent to U.S. Patent & Trademark Office, 2011 Crystal Drive, Crystal Park 1, Suite 810, Arlington, VA 22202. Any electronic copy of the proposal, the inclusion of which is optional, must be sent to raymond.witmer@uspto.gov. Point of Contact: The point of contact for information regarding this solicitation, including copies of questions, answers, and forms, and the individual to whom questions should be addressed is Raymond Witmer at (703) 308-5064 for voice, (703) 305-8294 for fax, and raymond.witmer@uspto.gov for e-mail. Posted 08/17/00 (D-SN487096). (0230)

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