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Call for Expressions of Interest (D - München)

Call for Expressions of Interest for Surveys, Studies and Consultancy Services in the Field of Economics, Forecasting, Organisation and Strategy

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1. Awarding Authority:

   The European Patent Organisation (EPO) through the European Patent Office: Headquarters, Erhardtstrasse 27, D-80469 Munich, Postal address: EPO, D-80298 Munich.
   
   The European Patent Organisation is an inter-governmental organisation set up pursuant to the European Patent Convention which entered into force in 1977. At present it has thirty-one Member States: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Ellas, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Monaco, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey and United Kingdom. The executive body of the EPO is the European Patent Office which is charged with the searching and examination of European patent applications and the granting of European patents. It employs approximately 6 000 staff at EPO headquarters in Munich, a branch at The Hague/Rijswijk (NL) and sub-offices in Berlin and Vienna.

   The purpose of this call for expressions of interest is to build up, after a selection process, lists of potential contractors who may subsequently be invited to submit tenders in their fields of expertise according to the fields detailed in 3(a) below. A further advantage of these lists is that the potential contractors selected for inclusion therein have to supply the relevant information only once and will not be asked to repeat it when answering specific invitations to tender to follow up their expression of interest unless the information submitted on their application changes.
   
   

2. Call for expressions of interest:

   Companies / persons who are interested in having their name entered on one or more list(s) of potential contractors are invited to submit an application in accordance with the rules set out below.
   The European Patent Office will draw up the lists of candidates who meet the criteria set out at point 8 below.
   Each list will correspond to each of the fields referred to at point 3(a). The lists drawn up following this notice will be used for contracts whose estimated value is above EUR 5 000.
   Each time a specific contract is to be concluded relating to one of the fields described in point 3(a), the European Patent Office will send the tender specifications to call the candidates in the relevant field or some of them, selected on the basis of the special criteria for the contract concerned.
   Inclusion on the list(s) entails no obligations on the part of the EPO concerning the award of contract nor, in view of the preceding paragraph, concerning an invitation to tender.
   
   

3. (a) Description of the fields covered by the call for expressions of interest:

   
   A. Economics: The European Patent Office requires studies of economic matters relating to intellectual property protection.
   Examples of past studies in the economic field are: Patent Citations, Tax Treatment of Patents and Patent Rights, Licensing in Europe.
   
   B. Forecasting: As a general rule the European Patent Office conducts every year a survey among the patent applicants to predict the future number of filings. As a general rule the survey is based on a model questionnaire and involves about 2 000 applicants. The work for the contractor will consist in carrying out the survey in order to obtain answers and an analysis of the answers received. In addition a research programme exists, where a number of researchers and scientists are asked to study the possibility of improving the present forecast methods and develop new methods.
   
   Examples of past surveys and studies in the forecasting field are: Applicant Panel Survey 2001, 2002, 2003 and 2004, Sector-based Multidimensional Forecasting Model, Modelling and Forecasting Patent Filings at the National Level, Patent Filings - Time Series Analysis and Forecasting.
   
   C. Organisation: As a general rule the European Patent Office makes use of Balanced Score Card (BSC) to report on the most strategically important topics to the higher management. Consultants will be involved in the further development of the top level as well as the cascading further down. On a regular basis surveys are carried out among applicants to check on the quality of the services delivered by the European Patent Office. Yearly the European Patent Office goes through a new posts requests exercise to ensure that only strictly needed new posts are created to deal with the workload. On an irregular basis different surveys are carried out in e.g. the fields of productivity, unit costs, human capital.
   
   Examples of past activities in the organisation field are: User Satisfaction Surveys in e.g. the Joint Clusters (internal business areas) Transport, in Engines, Pumps and Thermodynamics, in Telecommunication and Computers, Post Request Analysis.
   
   D. Strategy: On an irregular basis studies are carried out concerning the strategy of the European Patent Office, on the cost of a European patent, or the financial situation of the European Patent Office as well as other topics related to the short and / or long term strategy of the European Patent Office.
   Examples of past studies in the strategic field are: Cost of Patenting, Financial Study.
   
   

   (b) The type of contracts to be put out to tender:

   
   Restricted invitation to tender with discretionary award of contract.
   
   The lists resulting from this notice will be used exclusively for survey, studies and consultancy services in the fields specified under (a) above.
   
   

4. Place of performance:

   As a general rule most of the work will be carried out at the premises of the Contractor, but meetings and presentations will take place at the European Patent Office's headquarters, Erhardtstrasse 27, 80469 Munich.
   
   

5. Expiry date of the lists resulting from the call for expressions of interest:

   The lists created for each of the four fields (Point 3a, A - D) will be valid until the 31 December 2008. Any candidate interested may submit an application at any time during the period of validity of the lists, with the exception of the last three months, i.e. not after 30 September 2008.
   
   Candidates who have been included in the lists are required to inform the European Patent Office of any change as regards the information they provided occurring during the period of validity of the lists. The European Patent Office reserves the right to withdraw a candidate from a list if it considers that the new information materially impacts on the candidate's ability to perform the services required.
   
   

6. Legal form to be assumed by the grouping of Contractors to whom the contract is awarded:

   If several bidders will submit a joint bid in response to a specific invitation to tender, one must be designated as prime contractor responsible for performance of all obligations under the contract.
   
   

7. Processing of applications:

   The awarding authority will register on the lists those candidates who meet the criteria in point 8 according to their field of experience. Candidates will be informed in due course about the outcome of their application. The candidate may anytime ask for being deleted from one or more lists by written notification. The European Patent Office reserves the right to remove companies or individuals from one or more lists should previous services delivered not be at a satisfactory level or because of changes in the candidate's circumstances which substantially impact on the candidate's ability to perform the activity required.
   
   

8. Criteria for inclusion on the lists:

   a. Exclusion criteria:

   Any candidate who (a) is insolvent or bankrupt, or is in the process of liquidation, or who has entered into a composition agreement with creditors, or has ceased trading or is in any similar situation under the laws of the country in which he is domiciled, (b) is the subject of a petition in bankruptcy, application for composition (or in himself making such an application) or of any similar proceedings under the laws of the country in which he is domiciled, (c) has been convicted of an offence that puts his professional reliability in question, (d) has failed to fulfil his obligations with regard to payment of taxes and levies under the laws of the country in which he is domiciled, (e) has been found by the European Patent Office to have been guilty of grave professional misconduct, may be excluded.
   Candidates who will not provide all the mandatory information specified in the Application Form and under point 9 below will be excluded in the selection phase and will not be included on any list.
   

   b. Selection criteria:

   Technical and professional capacity: For the four fields; (a) to demonstrate the ability to operate in one or more of the official languages of the European Patent Office (English, French or German - in principle the general communication language, especially regarding the final report of a study, will be in English) and other languages, if necessary for a special topic. (b) Demonstrate appropriate theoretical knowledge in the field(s) for which interest is shown. (c) Preferable demonstrate intellectual property knowledge and experience. (d) Demonstrate former experience in working for international and multi-cultural organisations.
   Acceptance of contract conditions: candidates shall confirm their acceptance of the EPO's general and specific conditions of contract annexed to the Application Form for possible future contracts and their waiver of their own terms and conditions.
   
   

9. Full list of information, formalities and documents to be supplied by persons interested:

   Candidates are requested to fill in and sign the Application Form (this can be obtained from the contact details in point 10(a) and provide all references and financial information specified therein.
   
   

10. Address to which applications must be sent and from which the Application Form may be requested:

    a.  European Patent Office

    Central Procurement Department
    "Call for Expression of Interest"
    Erhardtstrasse 27
    D-80469 Munich
    Postal address: EPO, D-80298 Munich,
    Fax No. +49 89 2399 4497
    

    b. Arrangements for submitting applications:

    The envelope should be marked "Call for expressions of interest for surveys, studies and consultancy services". The selection, to form the lists, will be made on the basis of applications, which should be sent in by not later than 30 September 2008. Candidates will be informed within one month from the date of receipt of their application with regard to their acceptance or non-acceptance on the list(s) of admissible candidates.
    For an upcoming study, the European Patent Office will send an invitation to tender (restricted tender) including the draft agreement and the Technical Conditions which describe in details the specific study. The received bids will then be evaluated and the participating bidders informed about the outcome.
    

    c. Specification of field(s) of interest:

    By submitting the expression of interest the field(s) has(have) to be indicated (see 3.a).
    
    

11. Other information:

    There will be no guarantee of a specific volume of work within a certain period of time.