Information Today
Volume 18, Issue 10 — November 2001
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Derwent Wins USPTO Contract for Translating Patents into English

Derwent Information has announced that it has been awarded a 5-year contract from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) to provide human-assisted machine translation of foreign-language patents into English.

Effective as of August, Derwent is now providing the USPTO with manually enhanced machine translations, together with the original foreign-language patent document, for selected patent authorities.

Derwent will undertake the machine-assisted translation (MAT) processing of the documents using its own internally developed processing systems through which all translations undergo manual enhancement by qualified linguists.

According to the announcement, these high-quality human-assisted machine translations will be used by the USPTO examiners within their patent applications examination process where clarity, accuracy, and a guaranteed timely supply are essential. All human-assisted machine translation outputs are electronically provided as Adobe Acrobat or Microsoft Word files with twin column side-by-side translation, with the original images and drawings from the patent document embedded within the full patent text.

Derwent introduced machine translation in 1994 as an aid to its editorial process and has since developed sophisticated, patent-specific sets of dictionaries, technical terms, and thesauri. Derwent's MAT systems now process several thousand patent documents every week and successfully supplied the USPTO with several hundred manually enhanced translations prior to the award of the contract.

"During the pilot phase we optimized our production and delivery systems to the apparent satisfaction of the USPTO," said Todd Moorman, general manager of Derwent Information Americas. "We are delighted with this opportunity to provide enhanced translation services for the benefit of USPTO examiners."

Rob Willows, director of Derwent's Intellectual Property Services Division, said: "Derwent is very pleased with this award, which further strengthens our relationship with the USPTO. The Derwent World Patents Index has been part of the USPTO examiner's desktop toolkit for the past 3 years, and this new award is another example of how Derwent's products and services can contribute to the search and examination processes of major patent offices around the world."

Source: Derwent Information Americas, Alexandria, VA, 703/706-4220; http://www.derwent.com.

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