Public procurement notice: Contract Notice
Published: 2016-07-01
Buyer: The European Patent Organisation (EPO), acting through the European Patent Office
Country: DE
Contract type: Services
Procedure: Open procedure
CPV classification: 72230000: Custom software development services | 72260000: Software-related services | 72267000: Software maintenance and repair services
Submission deadline: 2016-09-30
Award criteria: The most economic tender

Technical requirements: DE-München: Vedligeholdelse udført af kontrahenten for EPO af den eksisterende software, der understøtter EPO's patenttildelingsproces, og udførelse af yderligere vedligeholdelse og udvikling af ny software efter anmodning fra EPO
The European Patent Organisation is an intergovernmental organisation set up pursuant to the European Patent Convention which entered into force in 1977. At present it has 38 Member States (Albania, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Monaco, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, San Marino, Serbia, 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 6 700 staff at EPO headquarters in Munich, a branch at The Hague/Rijswijk (NL) and sub-offices in Berlin and Vienna (the number of Member States and staff members indicated may change).
Provision by the Contractor to the EPO of maintenance of the legacy software supporting the EPO’s patent grant process and – upon commissioning by the EPO – provision of additional maintenance and development of new software. The legacy software is based on Mainframe, Java, Javascript, BeInformed and Documentum.
It is planned to award 2 contracts as a result of this tender, 1 for the domain “Internal Services” and 1 for the domain “External Services”. The 2 contracts will not be awarded to the same contractor.
Payment will be made within 30 calendar days following full delivery and performance and receipt of the invoice in the correct form.
The contract will have a duration of 3 years. The EPO may extend it at its discretion once by a further period of 2 years.
Proposals for variants, the effect of which would be to reduce significantly the rights and safeguards of the EPO, are not allowed.
(a) Name and address of department from which the Procurement Documents and clarification of the Procurement Documents may be requested:
- Bids must be submitted in 2 copies (including the original to be marked as such). The bid shall also be submitted on a USB stick/CD (except for the Offer Forms only to be provided as part of the original copy).
Please submit bids by post only and not by fax or E-Mail. Bids submitted by fax or E-Mail will be excluded.
If several bidders submit a joint bid, they must be jointly and severally liable for the performance of the obligations under the contract. A declaration to this effect, duly signed by all members of the grouping and appointing a representative that is authorised to act on behalf of all members, must be submitted with the bid.
Bids from bidders who do not fulfil the selection criteria stated in the Procurement Documents and/or whose circumstances are such as seriously to call into question their financial and professional reliability (see Article 2 of the General Conditions of Tender, available under www.epo.org) will not be considered for contract award.
Bidders' know-how, capacity and reliability to fulfil the contract will be assessed on basis of the information and evidence submitted in reply to the questionnaire in Annex 1 to the General Conditions of Tender and any additional questionnaire(s) included in the Procurement Documents.
The contract will be awarded to the bidder whose bid is the most economically advantageous bid having regard to the bidder's ability to meet the EPO's needs and requirements to be measured by:
DE-München: Wartungsleistungen für die bestehende Software des EPA zur Unterstützung des Patenterteilungsprozesses sowie – auf Bestellung der EPO – zusätzliche Wartungs- und Entwicklungsleistungen für neue Software