Translation Studies Lecture 13

Patent Translation

Lecture 13 Patent translation

A patent is defined as “a grant to the patentee…of the right to exclude others from making, using, offering for sale, or selling the invention throughout the country…for a term beginning on the date on which the patent issues and ending ….. years from the date on which the application was filed.”

A patent, therefore, confers only a negative right. The authority that grants the patent—which may be a national patent office or a supranational entity, such as the European Patent Office—undertakes to enforce the patentee’s right to exclude others from practicing the invention, but the inventor’s right to practice his or her own invention remains independent of the patent.

A patent is both a technical and a legal document: It is an agreement between an inventor and an authority defining the parties’ reciprocal rights and obligations with regard to a particular new area of knowledge called an invention.

Before translating any patent, a translator must get familiar with basic patent concepts and terms:

Patent is granted to the applicant for a patent (заявитель) by a special Patent Office (патентное ведомство) authorized by the government. The applicant has the right to sell his/her invention, it means the applicant can sell the license (лицензия) – the right to manufacture, produce and etc. for a set period of time, patent itself or even application for a patent. Thus, actual inventor (автор изобретения) or assignee (правопреемник) - the entity that is the recipient of a transfer of a patent - may be the owner of a patent (патентовладелец). The assignor (лицо переуступившее свои права) is the owner on record of a patent application, patent, trademark application or trademark registration who is transferring (assigning) ownership to another entity (assignee): assignor in half (переуступивший половину прав), assignor of one third (переуступивший треть прав).

Patent guarantees the applicant for a patent domestic priority (внутригосударственный приоритет). Priority is guaranteed from the date on which the application is filed and is confirmed by official filling receipt (приоритетная справка). However, if somebody proves that he/she has already applied the invention, he /she will be declared the right of prior use (право преждепользования).

A detailed description of the invention is provided in disclosure of the invention (описание изобретения). It is disclosure of the invention that is copied and sent to various Patent Offices. And it is disclosure of the invention is usually asked to be translated.

To file the application, an applicant sends to the Patent Office disclosure of the invention accompanied by the following documents: petition (заявление о выдаче патента), power of attorney (доверенность на оформление патента), oath (присягу заявителя), assignment agreement (передаточный акт) – if required – official filing fee (квитанция на оплату пошлины).

In Russia and Great Britain, the following types of patents are distinguished:

• Parent patent (основной патент)

• Patent of addition (патенты, выдаваемые на усовершенствование изобретения) - granted for novel improvements or modifications to an invention which is already covered by a patent (does not exist in USA)

Term of patent (срок действия патента) differs in various countries:

Russia – 20 years; USA – 17 years, Great Britain – 16 years

The term of patent is counted in different ways as well:

Russia – from filling/application date (дата подачи заявки); USA – from patent date of issuance (дата выдачи патента); Great Britain – from filling date of complete specification (дата подачи в патентное ведомство полного описания изобретения).

Note, the following terms: expiry date (дата истечения срока действия патента), unexpired patent (действующий патент), void patent (аннулированный патент).

Patentability (патентоспособность) means that the subject matter of an invention, which may consist of a “process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or any…improvements thereof,” meet three criteria. It must be all of the following:

• Novelty: A patentable invention must not have been known or used by anyone or published or patented anywhere in the world before being invented by the applicant. It must not have been published or patented anywhere in the world or have been put in use or on more than one year prior to the application date. This criterion defines the “prior art” (прототип)—that is, the known state of technical development in the field of the invention.

• Non-obviousness (неочевидность): The difference between the subject matter for which a patent is being sought and the prior art must be such that the subject matter would not have been obvious—at the time the invention was made—to a person having ordinary skill in that art (специалист средней квалификации).

• Usefulness: According to the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT), an international agreement designed to “simplify and render more economical the obtaining of protection for inventions where protection is sought in several countries,” the requirements for usefulness are novelty, the demonstration of an inventive step, and industrial applicability.

The following four groups of things can be patented: machines, processes, articles of manufacture and compositions of matter.