USPTO: ~$44M to improve patent search with AI — a contract with Accenture Federal (USAspending)

1Patent search as the core task

In patent examination, the core task is patent search: finding prior art among vast literature to check whether a filed invention overlaps with technology already in the world. There is a limit to how much any one examiner can read, so the precision and speed of that search feed directly into the quality and duration of examination. This contract funds contractor support to improve that search with AI.

2An award from a Commerce Department bureau

The buyer is the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), a bureau of the Department of Commerce, and the recipient is Accenture Federal Services LLC. The vehicle is a delivery order — an award directing specific work under a previously established overarching contract — with a period of performance from October 2019 to April 2023.

The USPTO has continuously worked on advancing AI-assisted patent search, and this site has also collected the agency's later awards.

3AI is already in practice outside defense

4What $44.07 million amounts to here

Across the 222 federal spending records this site holds as of 2026-09-01, the median obligation is about $3.11 million. Thirty-two exceed $10 million and four exceed $50 million, with the largest at about $120.58 million.

At about $44.07 million this contract sits high among the 32 above $10 million. Only 67 records were awarded outside defense, yet the largest amounts do not necessarily gather on the defense side. What this one covers is patent search — the core work of the office itself.