How many languages for European patents? Peer-to-patent posts again

[Harold Schiffman]

24 October 2007 How many languages for European patents? Peer-to-patent
posts again<http://ipkitten.blogspot.com/2007/10/how-many-languages-for-european-patents.html>

<http://bp3.blogger.com/_hsIuaIzV2Q8/Rxz6rFslhyI/AAAAAAAAAYs/__MLMPynCb8/s1600-h/poll.png>
*How many languages should the European patent be in?* This was the question
for a recent IPKat poll. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the favourite answer was
"only one". Unfortunately it is not possible to trace the origins or the
identities of respondents to this anonymised survey, but the IPKat has a
shrewd suspicion that the majority consists primarily of people having one
or more of the following characteristics: (i) they are from outside Europe,
derive most of their income from outside Europe and regard protection in
that continent as a necessary evil on which the least amount possible should
be spent; (ii) people who operate in one or more of the three official
European Patent Office languages and (iii) people whose work lies in
industrial sectors involving telecomms, software etc where most patents are
not read other than for the one-off purpose of establishing industry
standards.
<http://www.kemplen.co.uk/polyglot/animsinglepoly.gif>
What is notable is how many people still want translation of the full patent
- or at least the claims - into the language of every European jurisdiction
in which a patent takes effect.

*Left: a new generation of **Pollyglot
*<http://www.kemplen.co.uk/polyglot/polyglot.htm>
*Europeans is agitating for a streamlined language policy** (listen here
<http://www.kemplen.co.uk/polyglot/esperanto.mp3>to Polly speaking
Esperanto)*

Combined, this group actually outweighs the "only one" group. This, says
Merpel, indicates that there are still many people - academics, researchers
and those who work in so-called minority languages - for whom the disclosure
of an invention in a patent application is a valuable source of learning.


*Peer-to-patent posts again*. According to his latest information,
Peer-to-Patent
<http://www.peertopatent.org/>has posted a further seven pending United
States patent applications for review by interested parties. This latest
batch covers inventions in such diverse fields as

* detecting browser-based exploits
* progress indicators for program execution
* managing storage system performance as a resource
* clinical decision support for doctors
* selection of optimal executable code for a system
* drag-and-drop functionality
<http://bp3.blogger.com/_CHG2GRbeET8/Rx4illghxsI/AAAAAAAACrc/uQPtCLZNjVA/s1600-h/abacus.jpg>*
crossbar arithmetic processor.

The IPKat, suppressing any gut reactions as to where he'd like to drag and
drop the penultimate item on the list, urges all suitably qualified readers
to participate in this experiment.

*Right: IPKat team blogger Jeremy remembers his own experience of a
"crossbar arithmetic processor" ...*



--
http://ipkitten.blogspot.com/2007/10/how-many-languages-for-european-patents.html
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