Accenture Federal Services (AFS), a subsidiary of Accenture, has been awarded a position on the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) Intelligent Automation and Innovation Support Services (IAISS) blanket purchase agreement (BPA), a multi-award contract vehicle.

The five-year BPA is valued at up to $50 million and was released by USPTO’s Chief Information Officer, said Accenture in a statement.

The scope of the work includes piloting, testing and implementing advanced technologies—such as intelligent automation, artificial intelligence (AI), microservices, machine learning, natural language processing, robotic process automation, and blockchain.

AFS and Google Cloud started working with the USPTO to help the agency’s 9,000 patent examiners perform more thorough searches by augmenting their on-premise search tools with AI. A new solution—created by merging Google’s machine learning models with Accenture’s design, prototyping and data science capabilities—helps extend examiners’ expertise during the patent search process, says Accenture.

[Image courtesy: USPTO]