Data capture contract

Link: According to reports, the USPTO has awarded an $876 million contract to Reed Technology and Information Services (RTIS) Inc. for "Patent Data Capture."

Under the new contract, the company will convert scientific and technical information into searchable Extensible Markup Language and image databases.... RTIS will scan and index more than 75 million pages of information in 2005 alone, company officials said. The contract supports USPTO's 21st Century Strategic Plan, which is intended to bring new technologies to bear on the agency's operations.

RTIS is a unit of LexisNexis, which is a unit of Reed Elsevier.