The theme for this year’s conference is “Translators and Interpreters: Experts for International Communication in Specialised Fields”, putting the focus on the expertise of interpreters and translators and the trend towards specialisation. While translators and interpreters were formerly often generalists working in many different areas, they tend now to adopt closely defined specialisations. Market requirements have contributed greatly to this trend. Without those specialisations, freelance translators in particular find it difficult to establish themselves on the market. This is even more of an acute concern when one remembers that half of the 40,000 interpreters and translators in Germany are self-employed. The current requirements are reflected in the focal topics of the lectures, seminars and workshops. There are, for example, presentations on terminology work, interpreting in court and in the health service, new IT developments for translators and current trends in conference interpreting. Seminars and workshops will provide initial insights into specialist fields such as nanotechnology or financial derivatives for translators wishing to work in those areas. There will also be a series of events aimed specifically at freelancers, dealing with topics such as marketing, business development and positioning.

The international “Interpreting the Future” conference is an event organised by the Bundesverband der Dolmetscher und Übersetzer e. V. (BDÜ), with the aim of creating a platform for the exchange of information and experience between interpreters and translators from across the globe. Together with presentations, seminars and workshops, the conference includes a job exchange and a trade exhibition. Around 1,600 people from over 40 countries took part in the first conference in September 2009. BDÜ Weiterbildungs- und Fachverlagsgesellschaft mbH, a company owned and managed by the BDÜ, is the organiser of the event. Further information on the conference can be found at www.interpreting-the-future.com.

Read the complete article here.

MultiLing Japan opened in 2006 and has seen consistent growth since then. In spite of a shrinking economy, 2011 was a particularly robust year, realizing a growth rate of nearly 50%. A similar level of growth is projected for 2012 as well.

The contact information of MultiLing Japan remains the same:

MultiLing Japan YK
4-17 Kaigan Dori Toshin Building 7th Floor
Naka-ku, Yokohama-shi, 231-0002
Japan
Tel: +81 45-315-3135
Fax: +81 45-315-4450
E-mail: info-japan@multiling.com

The main issue in translating patents for foreign markets is the extreme lack of coordinated effort among the majority of patent lawyers and translation service providers. MultiLing therefore suggests a centralized, “hub and spoke system” that enacts vast improvements by establishing basic standards for the use of specific terminology and style for each target language. Each translation will then be performed by a highly qualified professional translator in constant consultation with the central office from each of the target countries. MultiLing has successfully implemented this model for numerous Fortune 500 companies, considerably increasing (by nearly double) the efficiency of patent activity overseas.

“Our approach not only reduces the risk of patent disputes and issues with the reviewer at the patent office due to incorrect translations, but also reduces the cost of ownership of the patent throughout the life of the patent. This is the new best business practice we are espousing for the IP industry as a whole”, said Michael during his presentation.

Hirohito Katsunuma, a Japanese patent attorney whose firm has partnered with MultiLing on this centralized translation process for more than a decade, discussed his experience with the “Patent Prosecution Highway” at the conference. The purpose of the PPH is to accelerate the processing of patent applications by comparing the use of previously filed work products. Katsunuma explained that “Japan’s JPO, Germany’s EPO, and the USA’s USPTO, the three largest international patent offices, and many other national offices participate in this process. It significantly increases the rate at which patent applications are granted internationally as well as in national markets.” Katsunuma suggested that a company implement the centralized translation process into its core operating plan to benefit from the “Patent Prosecution Highway” to the maximum possible extent.

The entire presentation and a short interview with Michael were recorded can be seen here.

“The door is wide open for industrial espionage”

German construction & engineering magazine ke NEXT spoke to Dr. Alexander Wurzer of Wurzer & Kollegen Germany about China and why it has not been easy for the industry. He explains what the industry should be paying attention to.

The Chinese government will give a presentation at the Hannover Messe (trade fair), presumably on government research projects in the field of energy efficiency, more specifically environmentally friendly automobiles. What does this mean for the industry?

Europeans need to separate themselves from the idea that only second-rate ideas and technology can originate in China. In all actuality, China has presented to the world original, and in many instances, world-class solutions. And that means that we have to deal with this prior art as it is produced in China and that the IP management has to look into this. There is an unbelievable amount of technical patent literature that we simply can’t read. However, this also means that patent applications based on Chinese inventions are filed in Europe. These applications can then be cited against European companies and in the worst case scenario German or European companies may be guilty of patent infringement.

You just said that it is up to the companies to research the Chinese prior art. But the Chinese language isn’t English. How are these companies supposed to accomplish this?

That is exactly the problem! There are some databases that provide Chinese literature in English. However, there is a pretty long delay from when the Chinese literature is published and when the English document is available. But they are helpful if someone wants to become familiar with and knowledgeable in one field. If someone wants to study current documents they can use service providers that specifically deal with Chinese patent literature inquiries. It is important to realize that the Chinese prior art needs to be monitored. This is an intellectual problem and not a technical issue.
In your opinion, in what areas is China already an industry leader?
Today, China is already a world leader in electric bikes. And one area in which China is absolutely a technology leader is in the field of battery technology, which includes electrochemistry. These are fields that are specifically selected because they are key skills that China will continue to lead in in the foreseeable future. It is important to understand that in this competition, the competitor has a completely different mindset. You can’t assume that this competition is played with Western ideals. They fight this economic war by completely different rules.

How does China go about capturing the market?

Chinese investment companies systematically buy technology companies or at least become shareholders in these companies. The most notable recent example of this is the concrete equipment manufacturer Putzmeister. To my knowledge, this is the first time that a larger mid-sized technology company was sold entirely to a Chinese competitor. This was a deliberate technology acquisition.

So what you mean is that Germany has to be prepared for this type of action?

We still have many competitive advantages like purchasing power, sophisticated networks, a high-level industrial culture and a decades-long culture of intellectual property. But there are still many areas in which we can improve.

Does that also include the patent field?

In the next few years we will most definitely see a German company close down specifically due to an infringement of a Chinese patent. Today, China has more patent applications submitted than Germany. And they will quickly catch Japan and the USA in this regard.

Regardless of this, plagiarism plays an important role in China. How can a company protect itself against this?

Plagiarism is the result of know-how theft. And know-how theft is just like a virus infection. At first you don’t know that you’ve become infected. Then you have an incubation period when you don’t know that you are already sick. Plagiarism is the outbreak of the disease. The even bigger problem is that you were unable to prevent your competitors from learning from your ideas. At this point the competition is able to imitate your product in any number of ways, many of which may even be legal. Like before, mid-sized companies don’t have a distinct feel for their own know-how and especially not for the massive shock of know-how theft. They go to China with hard drives and memory sticks and are wide open for any type of industrial espionage.

What advice have you given your clients, especially when they have discovered the plagiarism?

What is most important is that I have a consistent enforcement strategy. When I discover the plagiarism I first remove it from the market in Germany and track it in China with the help of local and experienced partners. Many people do the exact opposite and choose partners that aren’t established in the international markets who don’t know the political and legal environment in that area. There are many regions in China that make their living off of plagiarism. Do not underestimate this.

Tracking this must cost a lot of time and money. Wouldn’t it be more practical if you could prevent the virus from infecting the company in the first place?

Of course, but this requires protecting yourself early on. It is imperative to first identify what know-how you may have, where that information is located, and how a third-party could ever access that location. The next step is to guard, at least some extent, against industrial espionage. Just like with any other crime, the easiest victims are the ones hit first.

It sounds so obvious when you say that the company must first identify where their know-how is located.

It is, but when you are talking to a mid-sized company they sometimes don’t have a good sense of where this know-how really is. For example, I was working with a client in the field of manufacturing processes that had this mindset. As we began to look more closely at his company, we determined that these manufacturing processes were being done by specially constructed machines. They are custom-made machines that can only be adapted to the needs of the two-thousand employees that work there by two people. Only two people know how to operate that machinery. And the management had no idea! This company documented this knowledge, secured it, and trained more employees to be able to operate the machinery in order to widen this knowledge base.

Questions were asked by Angela Unger, ke NEXT magazine (translation by MultiLing)

Wurzer & Kollegen
Wurzer & Kollegen is one of the leading consulting and service companies in strategic intellectual property (IP) management and valuation of intangible assets in Europe. Based in Munich, Germany, they have more than 10 years of experience with consulting clients on the economic benefits of their patents, brands, and know-how.

The forum will cover:

Delegates, who have already registered to attend include representatives from: ArjoHuntleigh, Audi, BT, Chimar Hellas, ConocoPhilips, Diageo, DSM, e2v Technologies, Ericsson, France Telecom Orange, GE Healthcare, Jaguar Land Rover, Kraft Foods, Microsoft, MSD, Nestec, Netcall, Nokia, Oclaro, Oxis Energy, Petrowell, Siemens, Sony, Tetra Pak, UCL and many more.

The impressive speaker line-up includes:

For more information and registration please click here.

For years, the prevailing opinion among academics has been that language is embedded in our genes, existing as an innate and instinctual part of us. But linguist Daniel Everett argues that, like other tools, language was invented by humans and can be reinvented or lost. He shows how the evolution of different language forms—that is, different grammar—reflects how language is influenced by human societies and experiences, and how it expresses their great variety.

For example, the Amazonian Pirahã put words together in ways that violate our long-held under-standing of how language works, and Pirahã grammar expresses complex ideas very differently than English grammar does. Drawing on the Wari’ language of Brazil, Everett explains that speakers of all languages, in constructing their stories, omit things that all members of the culture understand. In addition, Everett discusses how some cultures can get by without words for numbers or counting, without verbs for “to say” or “to give,” illustrating how the very nature of what’s important in a language is culturally determined.

Combining anthropology, primatology, computer science, philosophy, linguistics, psychology, and his own pioneering—and adventurous—research with the Amazonian Pirahã, and using insights from many different languages and cultures, Everett gives us an unprecedented elucidation of this society-defined nature of language. In doing so, he also gives us a new understanding of how we think and who we are.

Read the book review on The Guardian

French Translator Josée Kamoun

Read the whole article here

Read an interview with Josée Kamoun (French language)

MultiLing CEO Michael Sneddon pointed out today, that we have seen a consistent increase in the number of translation orders over the past years, , specifically in the areas of patent and IT translations. “In addition, our new subsidiary near Beijing, China, has allowed us to access another major market of growth for our company. Together with our subsidiaries already located in Korea and Japan, we now have a strong presence throughout the Asian market”, said Michael.

Among the growing number of high-revenue corporate clients added over the past two years are several small and medium enterprises, which are requesting our services more frequently due to increasing global business needs that require publication grade translation and localization. For instance, the translation of websites is a large area of growth in the translation industry as companies become more global and attempt to reach their target audience in their native language. Having a staff that understands SEO, meta tags and HTML gives us an advantage over other translation companies.

The steady growth at MultiLing has also resulted in a need for more office space for our employees. Over the next three months, management and employees will relocate to a new office building, also in Provo, Utah, which will provide approximately 50 percent more space than the current location.

The significance of patent information has grown steadily with the creation of a global technology market reflected in a new record of 1.8 million patent filings worldwide in 2010. Despite the economic downturn, filings at the EPO increased again in 2011 to 243,000, with Japan accounting for 19%. The agreement ensures these applications will be readily available for innovative companies, to the particular benefit of small and medium-sized enterprises and research institutes. It is also expected to improve the quality of patent applications, as users will be able to take better account of Japanese prior art.

Back in March 2011, the EPO signed a long term agreement with Google to collaborate on machine translation of patents into multiple European, Slavonic and Asian languages. Under the partnership, the EPO uses Google Translate technology to offer translation of patents on its website into 28 European languages, as well as into Chinese, Japanese, Korean and Russian. The EPO provides Google access to its entire corpus of translated patents to enable Google to optimize its machine translation technology for the specific language used in patent registrations.

In our opinion, machine translation is an issue wherever principal information on patents is needed quickly and without legal aspects. When it comes to patent filing and other legal procedures, human translation by experts in the relevant technology field is essential. It is important to note that patent lawsuits are often the result of poor and inaccurate translation work.