99 -- Sole Source to Accusoft

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office intends to issue an order to B&L Associates for other than full and open competition. The order issued will provide for licensing and software support of the BL/LIB, BL/LIB ROBO and BL/DIST software products for 2006. This non-competitive action will be processed in accordance with FAR 6.301. Only one responsible source and no other supplies or services will satisfy agency requirements. The PTO has been using the BL/LIB and BL/LIB ROBO products since 1996 and the BL/DIST product since 1991. As is common for software products that run on the Unisys platform, only one company is in the business of supporting this proprietary software. That company is the creator of these products, B&L Associates. Therefore, this order can only be placed with one source: B&L Associates. A recompetition of the product and support at this time would add unnecessary expense and time delay to the USPTO.