This research aims to assess how accuracy of patent translation influences the
dissemination of disclosure of patent information within the grounding of legal cases involving patents. Therefore, it intends to make a contribution to the law on the roles, features and future perspectives of patent translation and dissemination of disclosure of patent information in the legal framework. It aims at approaching a very central legal question to understand and re-interpret the current scenario of the international patent system, based on the association between translation and patent law, and considering the revolution represented by the advent and improvement of patent machine translation in the last decade.
Although the chosen research question is very specific to the operational level of the law
associated with cases and disputes involving patents, the scope of the research demands a broad, interdisciplinary understanding of the concept, meaning and functioning of intellectual property rights and their regulations and language regimes (in national and global levels). It requires experience and knowledge of the structure and stages of a patent and the peculiarities of the patent system, which is here interpreted as a sub-system of the legal system (in association with other systems - the scientific, the economic and the innovation systems being the most relevant ones).
The methodology used is based on empirical analysis over how patent offices and courts
deal with foreign documents and how international agreements, like the one concerning the
Unitary Court in Europe, can best be elaborated and performed in order to manage this global, cross-border structure of the international patent system. Hereof, this investigation involves a deep understanding of how different players and institutions deal with a vast, complex and multilingual arsenal of patent documents and how a more integrated system - which can be reached through international agreements, among other processes of integration - can minimize the negative effects caused by inaccurately translated documents, avoiding discrepancies between decisions in different national offices and courts.
As part of the advance of globalization in the current society through growing economic
and political integration, (especially machine) patent translation has also become an increasingly sophisticated communication tool. Efforts at reaching accuracy in expert systems have been lowering language related barriers and allowing the dissemination of disclosure of patent information to be used on a daily basis by the users of the patent system.
Patent examiners, patent attorneys and, in many cases, judges deal with an uncountable
number of machine translated documents during their daily work. They are able to pick up those documents (normally also using machine translation) from databases which allow a vast range of possibilities to access patent information from all over the world. For those who preview machine translation as the future of the patent system (from patent examination, to opposition cases and court cases), it is possible to advocate it as its present, as those players already have to rely on automatic translation engines to deal with such a huge volume of global information. The entire process of patent prosecution involves, directly or not, in all its stages the use of these databases and their multilingual information.
In this respect, it’s also possible to sustain that the influence of machine translated
documents is huge in each and every phase followed by a patent document until the final decision on a legal dispute. Unfortunately, studies on patent law are taking for granted this scenario, being one step back from searching for solutions for what is represented today by a confusing, obscure global structure, when it comes to language and translation regimes. National courts (and different individuals) adopt various ways of coping with translated and original documents during a dispute.
Cross-border agreements face intense controversies when trying to search for integration and harmonization, normally involving language and cultural aspects. Specific countries can be isolated from the tendency to internationalization also for reasons concerning language and translation, not following the demands for a fast and efficient flux of communication. This entire picture carries the hypothesis that improved machine translation may lead to an enhanced international patent system and to more global justice related to innovation and intellectual property rights.
The current prospect in Europe involving patent rights represents the ideal landscape to
deal with the question presented above and to search for solutions on how to find means to
promote integration and interaction between nations in order to protect the rule of law and promote harmony in patent cross-border disputes. The moment of an intense debate about the Unitary Patent and the Unitary Court makes Europe a prime example in opening grounds to new possibilities for the international patent system. One of the main challenges of this historic step is finding legal solutions for coping with the linguistic diversity represented by the available patent information in a global level.
The research intends to offer relevant contributions in various fields and ways, by enabling:
• To find solutions to a more integrated patent system in Europe;
• To use the model of the European Unitary System as one to be debated in the sense of
promoting integration and interaction in developing countries;
• To find solutions for a “unitary language regime” in Europe as a basis to the Unitary
System;
• To open grounds to a whole new field of study (which associates language diversity and
legal integration and interaction in patent law), but a very relevant one in the current
situation of the international patent system and patent rights.
• To provide useful information for improving patent expert systems and patent searching
tools.
• To present proposals to further multidisciplinary and empirical studies that can continue to
search for solutions for global justice related to patent rights.
The present research is consonant to the Research Program of the Faculty of Law of
Maastricht University, as it directly concerns integration of and interaction between legal orders, concerning global justice, institutional transformations, globalizing markets and cross-border cooperation. The research topic is also consistent with the scope of the Max Planck Institute for Innovation and Competition, focusing on a future oriented question related to possible mechanisms of harmonization of intellectual property law.
