| 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. |
