The US Department of Commerce, Patent and Trademark Office has a requirement for contractor to support Scientific and Technical Information Center Chemistry Data.

The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) is conducting market research to expand its understanding of the market for certain chemistry content. The USPTO’s Scientific Technical Information Center (STIC) is supported by over a dozen large contracts with content providers, aggregators, and subscription services. A significant portion of that total investment procures and maintains specialized tools for searching chemical formulas, Markush structures, and numeric properties. In order to maximize the value from the USPTO’s investment and to reduce the STIC financial outlay, the USPTO is seeking to expand the number of sources for its Chemistry data portfolio.

• The USPTO requires the following content:
  • Bibliographic database of chemical abstracts, including structures, biosequences, and Chemical Abstract Service (CAS) Registry number identifiers, covering analytical chemistry, applied chemistry, biochemistry, chemical engineering, macromolecular chemistry, inorganic chemistry, organic chemistry, and general materials science. Sources of information to include journals, patents, conference proceedings, books, dissertations, reviews, technical disclosures, web pre-prints, and meeting abstracts.
  • Chemical reaction database, including CAS Registry number identifiers, covering synthetic organic research, including organometallics, total syntheses of natural products and biotransformation reactions. Sources of information to include journals, patents, reaction collection of All-Union Institute of Scientific and Technical Information Academy of the Sciences of the USSR (VINII) and the German Zentrale Informationsverarbeitung Chemie, Berlin (ZIC), Core reactions database from Institut National de la Propriete Industrielle (INPI),Biotransformations database compiled under the direction of Professor Doctor Klauss Kieslich, Encyclopedia of Reagents for Organic Synthesis (EROS), Wiley reactions collections, Selected Organic Reaction Database (SORD), and Ph.D. Dissertations.
  • 3 Directory and substance database of chemical catalogs, including structures and CAS Registry number identifiers, covering catalog information for the substance provided by the supplier (e.g. catalog name, chemical and trade names, grade information, CAS Registry number, structure diagram, properties), company names and addresses as well as supplier information and products and services. Sources of information to include catalogs and chemical libraries worldwide.
  • Directory, substance, and inventory database of regulated chemicals listings including CAS Registry number identifiers, substance inventories, regulatory lists, and dangerous chemicals. Including substance identity information, inventory status, source of information, and summaries of regulatory activity, reports, and other compliance information. Sources of information to include 1985 Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) Inventory and supplements and updates from US Government Federal Register, web sites, official government lists, gazettes, newsletters, bulletins, and electronic data feeds, as well as recognized US and International inventories and regulatory lists such as the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) Hazardous Substances List, Federal Drug Administration (FDA) Regulations, European Union (EU) Registration, Evaluation, Authorization, and Restrictions of Chemicals (REACH) – list of Registered Substances, Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPS), etc.
  • Bibliographic database including CAS Registry number identifiers covering information related to the chemical business industry. Sources of information to include government publications, journals, newsletters, newspapers, special reports, and trade magazines
  • Markush structure database including CAS Registry number identifiers of structure records for patents as well as Markush structures derived from INPI. Markush structures of organic and organometallic molecules must be searchable and patent reference information must be displayable. Sources of information to include patents found in database referenced in 1.1 through 1.5 above, English language patents, French and German patents, Japanese patents, Russian patents, Korean patents, and Institute National de la Propriete Industrielle (INPI) data.
  • Numeric and structure database covering all types of inorganic and organic substances, including alloys, coordination compounds, minerals, polymers, salts, high throughput screening (HST) compounds as well as nucleic acid and protein sequences. Substances included must be:
    • Identified as coming from a reputable source, including, but not limited to, patents, journals, chemical catalogs, and substance collections on the web.
    • Described in largely unambiguous terms.
    • Characterized by physical methods or described in a patent document example or claim.
    • Consistent with the laws of atomic covalent organization.
    • Content must include CAS Registry numbers, index names from database described in 1.1 through 1.5 above, commonly used chemical names and trade names, molecular formulas, structure diagrams, biosequence data, alloy composition tables, classes for polymers, ring analysis data, experimental and predicted property data and tags, spectra, list of databases and regulatory listings containing information on the substances, and displayable information for the most recent references for the substances. Sources of information to include CAS Registry system, GenBank, and special collections of substance data.
  • 8 Bibliographic toxicology database including CAS Registry number identifiers covering adverse drug reactions, air pollution, animal venom, antidotes, carcinogenesis via chemicals, drug evaluations, environmental pollution, food contamination, mutagenesis, occupational hazards, pesticides and herbicides, radiation teratology, toxicological analysis, and waste disposal. Sources of information to include Aneuploidy file, Biosis, Clinical Immunology Society (CIS) abstracts, ClinicalTrials.gov, Clinical Research Investigative Studies Program (CRISP) toxicology research projects, Development and Reproductive toxicology (DART) development and reproductive toxicology file, EMIC environmental mutagen information center file, Epidemiology Information System (EPIDEM), Environmental Teratology Information Center (ETIC) file, Federal Research in Progress (FEDRIP), Health Aspects of Pesticides Abstract Bulletin (HAPAB), Hazardous Materials Technical Center (HMTC), International Pharmaceutical Abstracts (IPA), International Standard Randomized Controlled Trial Number (ISRCTN) register of clinical trial numbers, Medical Literature Analysis and Retrieval System Online (MEDLINE), Pesticide Abstracts (PESTAB), Poisonous Plants Bibliography (PPBIB), Swedish National Chemicals Inspectorate database (RISKLINE), and Toxic Substances Control Act Test Submissions (TSCATS).
• Search and Retrieval. The USPTO requires a contractor to provide access to a platform that allows for users to search databases defined in Attachment 1 using one uniform retrieval language including Boolean operators, proximity operators and allowing for truncation of terms, including simultaneous left and right truncation (SLART). Text, numeric property, chemical structure, and bio-sequence searches must all be supported as well as limiting results to certain time periods. Users should be able to search using all traditional bibliographic access points including, but not limited to, subject terms, controlled vocabulary/thesaurus, titles, and authors’ names. Users should be able to search across multiple databases or files with one query, crossfile search (i.e. take the same search and apply it to a different set of databases or files without retyping the query), and build on a search after a result set has been returned. Users should be able to use answers obtained in one search as search terms in another file (e.g. CAS Registry numbers).
  • Users will be able to prepare a core structure and optionally add R-Groups, repeating groups, variable attachment points, and other variables that may represent Markush groups when searching structures and substructures. Additionally, a user may control where optional substitution is located on the core structure.
  • Users will have the ability to control all element counts on variable groups, such as heterocyclic variables and hydrocarbon variables when searching structures and substructures. Users will have the ability to draw structure “fragments” to represent any moieties for optional R-Group definitions. Users will be able to search patent database with structure to identify art with relevant Markush structures in the claims, even if specific substance is not described.
  • Search results – Retrieved citations displayed in default as well as user-defined format. Retrieved compounds, bibliographic citations, and patents will indicate database entry date. Users will be able to remove duplicate hits from retrieved answer set. Users will be able to save result files temporarily or for a set period of time, with a user-defined unique identifier. Users will be able to delete answer sets with system automatically renumbering retrieved answer sets.