Short description:

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.

Long description:

This book is a guide to translating the language of patents in view of avoiding costly translation errors. Errors that might hinder the examination process for granting patents, or that might make patents undefendable in a context of litigation.

The 42 sections of this book each identify different provisions of the law for their relevance to translation. These provisions govern language uses, right down to the use of punctuation. 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 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 professional translators working on patents, and for students and translators working in legal translation. Accompanying powerpoint slides including information on how to use this book in courses are provided here: Introduction to using Translating the language of Patents PowerPoints (PPT 185KB).

Table of Contents:

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 54)


11. Grantee, holder, assignee, or owner of a patent (code 73)


12. The patent application


13. Disclosure of the invention


14. Global consensus on disclosing inventions


15. Language uses invoked to perform the requirements of the law


16. The Enablement Requirement


17. Embodiment vs. example


18. The Best Mode Requirement


19. The Claims Section


20. The Single-Sentence Rule (SSR)


21. Direct object function


22. Claim structure


23. Transitional verbs comprising vs. consisting of (EN), 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: The Claims Tree function at Espacenet


30. Abstract of the invention


31. Patent drawings


32. Design vs. utility patents


33. Plant patents


34. Units of measurement


35. The literal translation requirement


36. Translations filed at the United States Patent and Trademark Office


37. Translations filed at the European Patent Office


38. 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 circled font for INID code numbers

Appendix II  List of 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

Index