Not a Patent!

I don’t know how they do it — ordinary translators that is. I had to translate some draft technical specifications (as in, specs, as opposed to a spec) today for a device that shall remain nameless. I say “remain” nameless because that’s the way it started out. I got 11 pages of technical description and a model number, but no hint as to what the device was and, of course, no helpful sections like, “Technical Field” or “Background.” Nor did I have the option of looking up the patent family. Nothing! Nada! Just a bunch of words on a piece of paper.

In the end I figured out what the mystery device was by Googling combinations of terms used in the document until I hit on a class of device that matched the description, but golly gee willikers — as Donald Rumsfeld would say — that sure is a lot of work.

And then there is this business of the author saying things that are not explict and surrounded by comforting redundant phrases. And no reference numerals!

I understand that I am spoiled, what I cannot figure out is why the gates to the patent translation specialization are not overrun by eager candidates fleeing the field of general technical translation.

Martin Cross
Japanese Patent Translation

Patent Agent for a Day

My father passed away about a year ago, leaving us many patents for the high voltage devices that he had invented and licensed. I spent Sunday going through them, working out which were under license and which were not and checking the payment schedules for them.

My father hated the way law firms would charge nearly a thousand dollars to pay a maintenance fee to a patent office, and he had a point. It’s a hefty bill for five minutes of paralegal time. He paid them himself when he was alive, but didn’t leave any schedules behind, so I had to make one. Some payments were already due so I took care of that too.

After that there was an office action requiring some minor changes (antecedent basis and incorporation by reference — that sort of thing) so I fixed those and, on Monday called the examiner to make sure it was to his liking.

There was one case where a patent had lapsed in Australia (that country doesn’t send out reminders) and I did leave that one to a local attorney to sort out, but all-in-all it was pretty simple stuff, and I was kind of fun to play patent agent for a day, even if I was only representing myself.

Martin Cross
Japanese Patent Translation

Wicked Wiki

I hadn’t noticed this before:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_patent_law

It looks pretty good. It covers the application processes, differences with respect to other countries and all the basic stuff that someone new to the system would want to know, plus links to the actual law and examiner’s guide lines.

I’d say bookmark it.

Martin Cross
Japanese Patent Translation

Trying Work

Recently I’ve been translating a lot of litigation support stuff. Usually, when you say those words in translation circles, the images that come to mind are of boxes containing ten thousand pages of handwritten discovery documents that need to be translated in two days. What I am dong this time is a little different. I’m translating demands for trials, briefs, petitions and opinions for patent litigation that is being conducted in Japanese on behalf of English speaking people who need to keep up to speed with the trial and give their input. It’s fun.

For one thing, you get to watch the law in action. I write and present quite a bit on how to go about producing exact translations of patents and why conserving word choice is essential. I meet with a certain amount of skepticism and resistence from people who either do not believe that word choice can be translated, or who cannot believe that word choice really matters that much. They have obviously never followed a patent trial. It’s all about the words. And watching a trial unfold makes the reasons for the word choices by the drafting attorneys come alive.

The other thing is that it is easy. I translate a lot of Japanese office actions. Perhaps out of a desire to save ink at the JPO, examiners write their reasons for rejection in staccato verse, referencing bits and pieces of the application and and prior art and snippets of the law without explanation or elaboration. The poor translator, much like the poor applicant, has to hunt through the cited references, the Patent Law and JPO examination guidelines to understand what is being said. It’s time consuming and, for the most part, boring. Odd, but there is no passion in an patent examiner’s writing style. Trial documents are another story.

Literally. The thing is that they actually do tell a story, and the attorneys are at pains to make that story as engaging and convincing as possible. One thought leads to another. Themes are repeated and amplified. There is logical and narrative consistency. OK, it’s not Shakespeare and I admit that I should probably get a life, but if I have to sit there reading and reproducing text eight hours a day, it’s nice when it’s well written text.

Martin Cross
Japanese Patent Translation

Can attorneys tell?

I once had the chance to edit a translation by a well-known and very successful (by which I mean busy) J>E translator. There were numerous problems with the translation which could be attributed to a poor grasp of Japanese and a poor understanding of the technology. The result was a translation that seemed to describe an entirely different invention than the one in the patent. A typical example follows:

タッチ位置により入力イベント数は異なる。

(mistaken translation) The number of the input event is different from the touch position.

(correct translation) The number of input events varies depending on the touch position.

As I was going through these old files today, I stopped and scratched my head for a while. Given this translator’s throughput (nearly a million words a year) it is unlikely that many attorneys have noticed anything wrong with the translations they get. You have to be popular to get a million words a year worth of orders. It is likely that the imaginary machines that he describes serve the purposes of the attorneys’ arguments at the PTO just as well as the real machines would have — who knows, perhaps even better.

For someone who spends a great deal of time fussing over the exact right word, it’s interesting to be reminded that there are probably vast amounts of business that goes forward based on the wrong words.

Of course, it’s not always without consequence. I was once called upon to check over a translation from English into Japanese that had been filed with the JPO a decade earlier. The patent was now being infringed and the client wanted to know if their original wording, which would have covered light sources of all types, had been used in the translation. Sadly, it turned out that the translation didn’t cover light sources at all. The translator had misread “projection” as meaning physically jutting out (as in, “the ledge projects from the wall” — 突出 instead of 投影) which, in Japanese, has nothing to do with light. I wasn’t around to find out how the whole thing ended, but I don’t imagine it could have been very happily.

Martin Cross
Japanese Patent Translation

The bad old days

Doing some badly needed housekeeping on the Patent Translations web site, I went over one of the reports that we have long linked to, the “Guide to Japan’s Patent System” put out by the Japan Information Access Project back in 1995. A lot of it is still useful, but it’s nice to see there have at least been some changes in the area of translation.

Here’s what the guide said:

Translation
Patent applications must be filed in Japanese, and there is little room for correction. Translations are costly and must be performed according to a set fee schedule established by Japan’s patent attorneys. Translation can also be time consuming. If U.S. patent applicants do not factor in the time for translation in their understanding of Japan’s filing schedule, the need for a translation may cause the applicant to miss deadlines and leave open opportunities to challenges to their grant. Although new agreements will allow filings in English, deadlines remain for a Japanese translation and corrections can only be offered at prescribed times.

Nowadays, of course, you have a 60 grace period for filing the Japanese translation, which is ample time to translate anything other than perhaps a real telephone book style biotech patent.

The other big change is that US filers have finally started going to specialist translation agencies for translations, usually meaning a better translation at half the price. That has caused Japanese patent law firms to get slightly less greedy with their translation charges. Though, I must admit, I saw one just today asking 60 cents a word. I am amazed the web page itself did not blush, considering that these same Japanese law firms are notorious for refusing to pay E>J translators more than 10 cents per word. Ah, well. The ratio of people who have figured things can only continue to increase.

Martin Cross
Japanese Patent Translation

Snail Fu

I got a wonderful letter from a chap named Snail Fu (no, I am not making this up) today. I get lots of offers of “collaboration” that are filled with claques and poor grammar, but this one was really special.

I wonder if you have many projects about Chinese translation or website localization. Then, it will be more helpful to cooperate with an professional translate company like us which based in the capital of China. It will surly cut down your cost sharply and provide you perfect service.

Martin Cross
Japanese Patent Translation