When the Unitary Patent came into being last year, some translators were worried about the short time frames for requesting unitary effect for European patents (Rule 6 – Requirements of the request for unitary effect (https://lnkd.in/eKiB6pMC)). You have only one month to request that a European patent take effect as a Unitary Patent, and you have to file a translation of the entire patent at the same time. This is a much tighter timescale than we have been used to for EP translations. The one-month deadline can’t be extended. However, if you request unitary effect but fail to file some of the supporting documentation (such as the translation), the EPO will invite you to remedy this within a month (Rule 7 – Examination of the request by the European Patent Office (https://lnkd.in/eH7W6Nxf)) – or in other words, you can expect to be granted an additional one-month period for filing the translation. Now that the dust has had time to settle on launch of the UP, I wonder what people’s experience has been: are deadlines getting shorter? (Deadlines have indeed been getting shorter for years, but has there been a sudden shift just recently?) Are more patents being translated in their entirety, rather than just the claims? Has anyone wishing to request unitary effect missed a deadline because they couldn’t find a patent translator? I’d love to hear about your experience in the comments. ---------- I’m Cate Avery, and I’ve been translating patents from German (and Italian) into English since the 1980s. I’m also a Fellow of the Institute of Translation and Interpreting. If you need any help with patent translations, do get in touch. If I can’t help, I might well know someone who can.
I am finding a demand for more full specs, but oddly they have all been for EP rather than UP texts.
Partner at Lodestar Translations, associate member of the Chartered Institute of Patent Attorneys, translating intellectual property and other scientific/technical documents from French, German and Italian into English.
4moI know that some of Lodestar Translation's clients are making greater use of MT for UP applications to speed things up and this has generated some MTPE work. I've even heard of some who are simply using unedited MT but I suspect that may well prove unwise when it comes to defending their patent.....