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NOTICE: SPECIFICATIONS HAVE BEEN CHANGED TO REQUIRE AT LEAST 95% ACCURACY (INSTEAD OF 100%). Title: United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) Court Reporting Services This is a Request for Inf... NOTICE: SPECIFICATIONS HAVE BEEN CHANGED TO REQUIRE AT LEAST 95% ACCURACY (INSTEAD OF 100%). Title: United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) Court Reporting Services This is a Request for Information (RFI) only and does not constitute a commitment, implied or otherwise, that the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) will take procurement action in this matter. Further, neither the USPTO nor the Government will be responsible for any cost incurred in furnishing this information. The USPTO may use the results obtained from this RFI to support one or more future procurements. Moreover, if a procurement is warranted, then the response to this RFI will be used for the purposes of determining whether a competitive or sole source procurement is appropriate. Additionally, the USPTO may use the results obtained from this RFI 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 RFI. BACKGROUND The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) is a federal agency whose mission is to administer the laws and regulations related to patents and trademarks to promote industrial and technical progress in the United States. The USPTO carries out its missions by providing high quality and timely examination of patent and trademark applications, issuing patents and registering trademarks, guiding domestic and international intellectual property policy, and delivering intellectual property information and education worldwide. To accomplish this mission, the Agency must hold hearings, hear appeals, and make decisions on a host of patent-related matters and non-patent related matters. The handling of these matters must be documented. Multiple business units across the USPTO support the mission of the Agency: The Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) conducts trials (including inter partes, post- grant, and covered business method patent reviews and derivation proceedings), hears appeals from adverse examiner decisions in patent applications and re-examination proceedings, and renders decisions in interferences. The Office of General ounsel (OGC) acts as the Under Secretary and Director’s principal legal advisor in assuring the provision of legal advice and representation for the agency. The OGC is concerned with defense of agency decisions in court and administrative tribunals, internal agency legal advice, and regulation of persons practicing before the USPTO. OGC is also the delegated authority to hear appeals from decisions in enrollment and discipline matters, and to determine whether special circumstances exist pursuant to 35 U.S.C. § 122 for releasing information concerning patent applications. The Office of Policy and International Affairs (OPIA) assists the Under Secretary and Director in advising the President and Federal agencies on domestic and international IP issues. Additionally, it promotes the development of intellectual property systems nationally and internationally, and advocates improvements in and more effective means of protecting and enforcing intellectual property rights of United States nationals in the United States and throughout the world. OPIA is planning a series of public meetings regarding the protection and enforcement of certain intellectual property rights issues. The Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB) is an administrative board that hears and decides adversary proceedings between two parties, namely, oppositions (party opposes a mark after publication in the Official Gazette) and cancellations (party seeks to cancel an existing registration). The TTAB also handles interference and concurrent use proceedings, as well as appeals of final refusals issued by USPTO Trademark Examining Attorneys within the course of the prosecution of trademark applications. OBJECTIVE The USPTO seeks to acquire court reporting services for quality documentation of depositions, hearings, hear appeals, proceedings, roundtable events, administrative hearings, and decisions made on a host of patent-related matters and non-patent related matters. SCOPE The scope of services for this requirement is contractor support for all facets of court reporting, including stenography and transcription. Court reports services include: transcription of “on the record” events, hearings, dispositions, hear appeals, proceedings, and decisions. The USPTO reserves the right to order more specialized services such as video recordings of depositions and hearings and any other related service(s) deemed necessary for the particular event. See the Statement of Work (SOW) for additional details. Providers shall be licensed and/or certified by the state where services are being performed, if applicable. For planning purposes only, the following general information on expected workload demand and could fluctuate: The average number of hearings per month for PTAB has been approximately 100 per month. These hearings are often highly technical in nature and utilize terms of art that are uncommon in typical court hearings. The average number of hearings/trials for the OGC has been approximately 30 per year. The average number of depositions for the OGC has been approximately 60 per year. The average number of arbitrations for the OGC has been approximately 10 per year. The OPIA hosts approximately 10 roundtable meetings per year. Other offices have miscellaneous requirements for recordation of public hearings, etc. LIST OF ATTACHMENTS Statement of Work RFI RESPONSE PACKAGE AND INSTRUCTIONS RFI Questions: Please complete the requested information using the response table in Appendix A detailing your organization’s profile (e.g. general, company, active/live client information, etc.). Provide feedback on the Statement of Work (SOW) and please specify the SOW section, including, but not limited to the following: a. Potential constraints/risks b. Unclear tasks or areas to refine Provide relevant and recent past performance for similar Government contracts/BPA, orders/calls. Recent is defined as the past three (3) years. This requirement requires court reporting for locations across the continental United States, with the majority of support needed within the following regions/cities: 1) Washington D.C. Metro area (including Alexandria, VA); 2) Dallas TX; 3) Denver, CO; 4) Detroit, MI, and 5) Menlo Park, CA. Please confirm that you company is able to provide support for all these regions. Please provide past experience references for each of the five (5) regions/cities. Is your company licensed and/or certified in the states, and Washington D.C, where services will be performed (in VA, MD, TX, CO, MI, and CA, at minimum)? If your company has not supported any, or a portion of the five (5) regions/cities, listed above, please explain what business arrangements will be sought. The Government is contemplating non-reimbursable travel. Would that affect your likelihood of submitting a quote? If so, please explain why/why not. Is the prior notice timeframe for scheduling realistic? If not, how much prior notice is needed. Is the prior notice timeframe for cancellations realistic? If 24 hours prior notice is not sufficient, how much time is needed to avoid any type of cancellation ‘fee’? What measures are in place to ensure at least 95% quality accuracy for verbatim transcriptions of events, depositions, and hearing proceedings? Deliverables are due five (5) or seven (7) business days after the event, hearing, disposition, etc. What is a reasonable timeframe, in business days, for Industry to submit its completed deliverables (i.e. transcription, stenography) in accordance with the SOW? Would the turnaround time affect pricing? Please explain. What information would you need to efficiently describe and price the appropriate solution in an RFQ? Please describe what qualifications your company considers its court reporters must possess in order to have expert knowledge of legal terminology and appellate procedures. Please note that the RFI responses shall not exceed 15 pages in length not inclusive of the request in Appendix A. Use single spaced, 12-point, Times New Roman Font. Please refrain from providing materials that are not relevant to this request (e.g. marketing materials). Acceptable file formats include Adobe Acrobat, Microsoft Word and Microsoft Excel. Response Submission Deadline: Interested party shall provide the information requested in this RFI through the Sam.gov website on or before the due date listed in the Sam.gov RFI announcement. Response Naming Convention: Request for Information - : USPTO Court Reporting Services Response Disclaimer and Important Notes: This notice is for information and planning purposes only and does not constitute a solicitation for bids, quotes or proposals. This notice does not obligate the Government to solicit for this requirement or award a contract and does not obligate the Government to reimburse interested parties for any costs incurred to prepare or provide a response to this request for information. Any interested party responding to this notice should ensure that its response is complete. Respondents are advised that the Government has no obligation to acknowledge receipt of the information received or provide feedback to respondents with respect to any information submitted. Appendix A – General Response Table RESPONSES TO THIS NOTICE: The following information shall be included in RFI responses: 1. Name of Company and Unique Entity Identifier (UEI) number 2. Address of Company 3. Name, phone number and email address of company representative 4. Company size standard and/or socio-economic standing(s); i.e., large business, small business, veteran-owned small business, service-disabled veteran-owned small business, HUB Zone small business, small disadvantaged business, or women-owned small business. 5. Capability statement and/or letter of interest 6. Relevant experience and past performance – Court Reporting Service. Provide Federal Point of Contact, summary of scope and value. 7. IMPORTANT: Include questions or suggestions for improvement of the DRAFT Statement of Work (SOW). We encourage feedback on ways to improve our SOW or proposed acquisition strategy.