CANCELLATION OF USPTO_ACQ_1106_USPTO_RDB_DOCUMENT_DELIVERY_SERVICE_RFQ

24 July 2023 U.S. Patent and Trademark Office 600 Dulany Street, Alexandria, VA 22314 SUBJECT: Solicitation Cancellation Notice TITLE: Reference Document Branch (RDB) Document Delivery Service – RFP Number 1333BJ23Q00150013 Requirement Description: The Contractor shall complete the research and delivery of requested Non-Patent Literature required to support USPTO's mission to examine and grant valid patents and trademarks. The USPTO, STIC has a recurring requirement for document delivery services for NPL reference requests. Original Solicitation: The solicitation was originally issued on 13 June 2023 as a small business set-aside. The NAICS for this solicitation is 519210 – Libraries and Archives. The USPTO anticipated the award of a firm-fixed price single award contract. Cancellation Purpose: A sources sought was posted to SAM.gov which resulted in 4 (four) business being found that could possibly fill the requirement. There were 3 (three) small businesses and 1 large business. After consultation with the USPTO Small Business Office, it was decided to compete the requirement as a small business set-aside. As stated above, the solicitation was released on 13 June 2023. Only one offer was received in response to the solicitation. The proposal received was unawardable. In RFP section 11.6.3, offerors were instructed that the written portion of their proposal would be the PowerPoint slides for their presentation. The offeror submitted the cover page along with answers to the questions that were to be answered in the oral presentation. Since the offeror was the only vendor to submit a proposal, they were allowed to conduct their oral presentation. The offeror did not prepare an oral presentation as required in the RFP and only wanted to answer additional questions. They did, however, present a version of their answers in the time set-aside for their oral presentation. Based upon the oral presentation and the proposal that did not follow the directions in the RFP, it was determined that the offeror did not understand the requirements or the solicitation. Future Acquisition: USPTO is going to update market research with the results from this competition and attempt to award a sole source contract to the 1 (one) large business that responded to the source sought. The acquisition will be started using USPTO Patent and Trademark Office Acquisition Guidelines (PTAG) procedures. The USPTO still anticipates the award of a firm-fixed price single award contract. The upcoming contract opportunity will be posted to the System of Award Management (SAM) website and subsequent award will be executed in FY23. There is no opportunity for subcontracting for this requirement. The vendor states that due to proprietary software, subcontracting is not feasible. Should you have any questions concerning this requirement, please contact the undersigned at (571) 272-3266.