Translation

Translation of patent applications is ordinarily done by the foreign associate that files the application. Translation usually takes several weeks, and many associates have a surcharge for applications sent to them with less than a month before the filing deadline. It is significantly less expensive to use a U.S. translation service, and then send the translated application to the foreign associate, but this should be done well in advance since there are often minor problems with the format, etc.

One cannot assume that the foreign associates will translate the application correctly. Especially with the claims, it is a good idea to have the application translated by the foreign associate that is doing the filing, but then use another foreign associate to re-translate the claims back to English. If the re-translated claims do not adequately match the original English claims, appropriate changes need to be made.

Translation problems are much worse between Western and Eastern languages. This occurs both because of the structural and usage differences between the languages, and the patent practices in the different countries. In Japan, for example, practitioners are not generally used to prophetic example (i.e. paper examples), and may well translate a prophetic example in the past tense. Thus, instead of stating that "compound A could be mixed with compound B" the translator might write the equivalent of "compound A was mixed with compound B". In addition, one Japanese practitioner recommends that the prophetic examples include the following disclaimer:

This example includes simulated tests and predicted results which can be conducted based on description of this specification by those skilled in the art at the time of filing this application.