A patent is an exclusive right granted by law to the applicant for invention for a limit period of time (generally 20 years from filing). The patent holder has the exclusive right to commercially exploit the invention for the duration of the patent term. Patents are granted by national or regional patent offices and are limited to the jurisdiction of the issuing authority. Patent rights can be obtained through the filing of an application at the relevant national or regional offices, or by the filing an international PCT application with the corresponding national phases in national or regional offices.

Patent rights in only one country are of very limited value for most inventions. The applicant based on commercial and technical decisions will file applications in other countries. The patent specification in then sent to patent attorneys practicing in each of the chosen countries with instructions to prepare the patent application forms, arrange for any necessary translation and do anything necessary to ensure that a patent application claiming priority is filed within the priority period.Significant sums of money in intellectual property assets, important researches,

international filings and business decisions are at stake. Therefore, there is no room for error in the process of filing and prosecuting a patent application.

In today’s global intellectual property market, high-quality translations of patents are critical to running a successful patent practice or effectively leveraging your patent assets. Patent translation represents a particular challenge to even the experienced translator. Aside from involving technical subjects in a wide variety of fields, patents use language and style conventions that are uncommon in other disciplines or in everyday speech. The translator must stay actively involved and examine the technical content and patent language throughout the translation process critically.Outsourcing patent translation works to translation firms or freelance translators has become a common practice in the industry, regardless of subject field. Outsourcing is considered as more cost-effective, efficient, and economical than having to support an internal independent translation division, and therefore has undoubtedly become the trend in the distribution of translation works.

Due to budget and administrative concerns, patent applicants would only benefit from better management and lower costs in both human and technical resources when they had procured qualified translators to produce quality works.

Patent translation bridges linguistic barriers for worldwide readers, and constant updates of newly published patent information online satisfy the need of a larger group of people with different languages and backgrounds. Due to the complexity and technical features of patent translation, academic training in this area is rare. However, the increasing demand brings forth job opportunities. Training specifically designed for patent translation provides translators with background knowledge and translation competency in patent documentation and prepares patent translators for providing patent applicants, patent offices and legal firms a job of great quality.