USPTO Should Strengthen Its Planning and Oversight of Patent Data Capture Contracts to Manage Risks and Prevent Unnecessary Costs

For our final report on our audit of the United States Patent and Trademark Office’s (USPTO’s) oversight of Patent Data Capture (PaDaCap) contracts, our audit objective was to determine whether USPTO awarded and administered PaDaCap contracts in compliance with applicable laws and federal regulations and U.S. Department of Commerce policies and procedures. To address this objective, we assessed the justification and approval of noncompetitive acquisitions, risk assessment and mitigation activities, and oversight of contractor performance. Overall, we found that USPTO did not fully comply with relevant requirements when awarding and administering the PaDaCap contracts. Specifically, we found the following: I. Ineffective acquisition planning delayed the use of competition and achieving lower prices; II. USPTO inadequately managed contract risks; III. USPTO did not timely inspect contractor deliverables and track errors; and IV. USPTO inadequately addressed contractor security issues.