Patent translation: invention applications and patent documentation

A patent is the only technical document in which every word draws a legal boundary. One extra or missing term in the patent claims narrows the scope of protection or puts the patent at risk of invalidity, while a distorted technical detail in the description casts doubt on whether the invention can be carried out. We translate patent documentation for Sakpatenti, the international phase and foreign offices with the precision that patent examination and a possible court dispute require.

The structure of a patent document and the translation requirements

The claims

The claims are the legal core of the patent: it is they that define what is protected and what is not. In the translation the following are inadmissible:

• breaking the hierarchy between independent and dependent claims;
• designating the same element with different terms (the so-called loss of antecedent basis: if in claim 1 it is a "housing", in claim 7 it must also be a "housing" and not a "casing");
• interchanging the transitional phrases ("comprising", "consisting of", "consisting essentially of"), because each creates a different legal scope;
• stylistic "improvement": a claim is one sentence, however long it may be, and it must remain one sentence in the translation too.

The description and the abstract

The description must be complete enough for a person skilled in the art to carry out the invention. The translation preserves the review of the prior art, the essence of the invention, the examples of embodiment and the brief description of the drawings in the same order and with the same terminology as used in the claims. The abstract is translated within the strict character limit set by the specific office.

Drawings and reference numerals

The reference numerals on the drawings stay unchanged, and in the description each numeral must be matched with exactly the term used in the claims. The text captions on the drawings (block diagram fields, chart axes) are translated as a separate table or in an editable graphic file.

When Georgian and foreign companies need a patent translation

• The national phase of a PCT application in Georgia: an international application enters Sakpatenti in Georgian within 31 months of the priority date. The translation must be ready within this deadline and meet the formal requirements.
• Validation of a European patent in Georgia: since 15 January 2024 a patent granted by the European Patent Office takes effect in Georgia through validation, for which a Georgian translation must be submitted.
• Patenting a Georgian invention abroad: within the 12-month priority period of the Paris Convention a Georgian application is translated into English, German, Russian or another language as required by the target office.
• Court disputes and opposition: in patent infringement or invalidation cases the prior art documents, examination opinions and foreign patents are translated for submission as evidence.
• Licensing and due diligence: for the evaluation of a patent portfolio during technology transfer, investment or a merger.

Terminological precision: "comprising" and "consisting of"

The classic difficulty of patent translation is the transitional phrases. The English "comprising" means an open list (additional elements are allowed), "consisting of" a closed one (only the listed elements), and "consisting essentially of" an intermediate position. If the translator renders all three the same way, the scope of the patent's protection changes unintentionally. Our translators observe this distinction systematically and use fixed equivalents in the Georgian text that correspond to Sakpatenti's practice and Georgian patent legislation.

We also observe:

• the exact carrying over of modal verbs ("may", "can", "shall"), because they create the difference between mandatory and optional;
• the logic of indefinite and definite elements ("a", "the"), which, because Georgian has no articles, we reflect by syntactic means;
• the word-for-word precision of units and ranges ("from 5 to 15 percent", "at least 20 mm").

Process and quality control

1. Analysis of the document: determining the technical field (mechanics, chemistry, biotechnology, electronics, software) and the formal requirements of the office.
2. Translation by a translator with an engineering or scientific education in the specific field and experience of patent texts.
3. Patent editing: checking the structure of the claims, the antecedent basis, the transitional phrases and the reference numerals.
4. Formal verification: page numbering, the character limit of the abstract, the format required by the office.
5. Optionally, agreeing the final version with the client's patent attorney.

Typical errors that damage a patent

In practice the following defects occur most often when a patent text is handled by a non-specialised translator:

• splitting the one long sentence of a claim into several short ones, which breaks the legal unity of the claim;
• replacing a technical term with an everyday synonym (for example, "pipe" instead of "pipeline"), which makes the identification of the element harder;
• inexact carrying over of the boundaries of a numerical range ("greater than or equal to", "less than");
• damage to chemical formulas, subscripts and Greek symbols during formatting;
• omitting a reference numeral or attaching it to a different element in the description;
• copying document numbers and dates incorrectly in prior art citations.

Each of these errors creates an additional requirement at the examination stage and grounds for invalidity after grant. That is why our editing stage specifically provides for checking these points.

Confidentiality before publication

Before the application is published (as a rule, 18 months from the priority date) the content of the invention is a trade secret and its disclosure means the loss of novelty. On every patent project we sign an NDA, files are kept in an encrypted environment, and only the translator and editor assigned to the project have access.

If the invention is already in production, its technical specification and drawings and operating manual are translated with the same terminology base, which rules out inconsistency between the patent and the product documentation.

Frequently asked questions