Translating the Language of Patents

This is a guide to translating the language of patents and how to avoid costly translation errors, errors which might hinder the examination process for granting patents, or that might make patents undefendable in a context of litigation. The identified provisions of law govern language uses, right down to the use of punctuation.

The 42 sections of this book each identify different provisions of the law for their relevance to translation. Each of the sections present findings, both in terms of the relevant provisions identified, and their specific significance to translation. Exemplified translations focus on French and English, but when there is a consensus across Intellectual property systems, multilingual parallelism is highlighted. Wherever relevant, provisions of specific rules and regulations are presented and exemplified in the three official languages of the European Patent Office (EPO), English, French and German and the three official languages of the United Nations World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), English, French and Spanish.

Written by an experienced teacher, patent translator and author of the blog, "Patents on the Soles of Your Shoes", this is a rigorously researched, authoritative and comprehensive guide for all students and translators working in legal translation. Accompanying e-resources are available on the Routledge Translation studies portal (routledgetranslationstudiesportal.com) including information on how to use this book in courses.

List of Figures

List of Tables

Preface

Acknowledgements

List of acronyms and abbreviations

1. Corpus of laws, rules, regulations, international agreements and administrative instructions
2. What is a patent?
3. When is a patent?
4. What does a patent do?
5. When is a patent a source text for translation?
6. The Person Having Ordinary Skill In The Art (PHOSITA)
7. Prior art
8. International Search Report (ISR)
9. Internationally agreed Numbers for the Identification of bibliographic Data (INID) Codes
10. Title of the invention (code 5$)
11. Grantee, holder, assignee, or owner of a patent (code 7#)
12. Patent application
13. Disclosure of the invention
14. Global consensus on disclosing inventions
15. Language uses invoked to perform the requirements of rules and regulations
16. Enablement requirement
17. Embodiment versus example
18. Best mode requirement
19. The claims section
20. Single Sentence Rule (SSR)
21. Direct object function
22. Claim structure
23. Transitional verbs comprising versus consisting of “comprenant“ vs. “constituer de“ (FR) -"umfassen" gegenüber "bestehen aus“(DE) -“que comprende“ vs. “consistente en” (ES)
24. Claims recitation rules: Backward only and in the alternative
25. Antecedence and ascertainability of claims terminology
26. Plain meaning
27. The Lexicographer Rule
28. Format, numbering, spacing, and fonts
29. Representation of recited claims: Claims tree function at Espacenet
30. Abstract of the invention
31. Patent drawings
32. Design versus utility patents
33. Plant patents
34. Units of measurement
35. The literal translation requirement
36. Patent translations filed at the United States Patent and Trademark Office
37. Patent translations filed at the European Patent Office
38. Patent translations filed at the World Intellectual Property Organization
39. Patent search tools at the World Intellectual Property Organization
40. Patent search tools at the European Patent Office
41. Patent Public Search portal at the United States Patent and Trademark Office
42. Patent-related bioethical controversies

Appendix I - Instructions for obtaining CombiNumerals circled font for INID Codes.

Appendix II - Cited patents.

Appendix III - European patent dataset.

Appendix IV - Cited US Code, rules, regulations, and administrative instructions.

Appendix V - Cited EPO Convention rules, guidelines, and administrative instructions.

Appendix VI - Cited WIPO Treaty rules, standards, regulations, guidelines, and administrative instructions.

References

Index

Françoise Herrmann, Phd, is currently a Lecturer at San Jose State University (California) and at Kent State University in Ohio, thanks to the wizardry of online course delivery systems.