Tag: accuracy

Basics · Grammar

Sometimes the Small Words are the Most Difficult to Translate…

friedemannhorn37 Comments
vivid autumn leaves scattered on ground

It was November 18, and my secretary came to me in a bit of a panic. We had just received a new order for filing a patent application from one of our Japanese clients, which included the following English instructions:

Please file this application in the middle of November!

My secretary was worried, because the instructions seemed unclear and ambiguous to her and we were already 18 days into November. What does “middle of November” mean? November has 30 days, so the middle is exactly Nov. 15, isn’t it? But that day was already in the past.

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Basics · Grammar

The three dimensions of patent translation

friedemannhorn36 Comments
geometric mosaic ornament on tiled floor

There are many ways to translate a Japanese sentence into English – at least if it’s a sentence of sufficient complexity and length. When translating, we can optimize for three different qualities:

  • Accuracy
  • Readability
  • Checkability

The following is my take on these three different qualities and the role that they play in patent translation. Let’s go through them one by one.

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