I’ve discovered a very clear introductory guide for translators to the new tools of the European Patent Office (EPO) database. It is a recap of “Befriending the new Espacenet tools for patents translation”, a session at the last ATA conference.

The recap was published earlier this month by the Law Division of the American Translators’ Association and is written by Françoise Herrmann, a freelance translator and interpreter (French and English) specializing in medical and patent translation. She has taught patent, medical, and technical translation at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey and New York University.

“The New Espacenet interface is now accessible in all the national languages of the Patent Offices connected to the database. In other words, the Patent Offices of 38 States party to the European Patent Convention, and thus members of the European Patent Organization; plus more, since an Arab-Pat interface in Arabic also exists, as well as LatiPat (Spanish & Portuguese), and Eurasian Patent Office links. For translators, this means availability of parallel official translations of the Espacenet interface, in their source or target languages, depending on the direction of translation.”

You can find the introductory guide here.

Françoise’s blog “Patents on the soles of your shoes…” may also be of interest to patent translators.