How do I fix a translation error in a United States patent application?

A patent is a set of exclusive rights granted to an inventor of an invention by a national government. To be granted a patent an inventor must submit a patent application which demonstrates that the invention is entitled to patent protection. In the past an inventor would have to submit a patent application to every nation in which the inventor sought a patent. The process of submitting many different patent applications to many different nations was time consuming and expensive.

The Patent Cooperation Treaty makes the patent application process much easier for inventors. The Patent Cooperation Treaty allows an inventor to submit a single patent application and have that patent application be honored by all the nations which have adopted the treaty. The process of being granted a patent is still requires strict adherence to the rules and deadlines set by each contracting nation of the Patent Cooperation Treaty, but the process is more manageable.

To begin the patent application, the inventor files a patent application in their home country, this is considered the priority application.To pursue patent rights outside their home country the inventor needs to file an international patent application, also called a Patent Cooperation Treaty application. A Patent Cooperation Treaty application can be filed up to 12 months from the priority application’s filing date. Within 30 months of the priority application filing date, the inventor must submit their patent application to each nation outside their home country. This is known as entering the national phase of a Patent Cooperation Treaty application.

When aPatent Cooperation Treaty application enters the national phase in the United States an English translation of the priority application must be submitted to the United States Patent and Trademark Office. It is in the inventor’s best interest to submit a high quality translation that accurately represents the priority application, but some times mistakes are made and translation does not match the priority application. This can lead to problems for the inventor, so for the use technical text in their documents, is better to use translation services that you can find online. Introducing new information into a patent application is not allowed.

Can an inventor fix a translation error in a United States patent application? Yes.

The key thing to remember is the priority application is the controlling document. If the inventor is not trying to introduce any new information into the national phase application, which was not in the priority application, than it is likely that the United States Patent and Trademark Office will allow a correction.Corrections to the United States national phase patent application can be made in order to ensure that its content is the same as the content of the priority application as long as new matter is not introduced.Mere rephrasing of a sentence is not new matter. A rewording of a passage where the same meaning remains intact is permissible.An amendment to correct an obvious error does not constitute new matter where one skilled in the art would not only recognize the existence of error in the specification, but also the appropriate correction.

If for some reason, the inventor must introduce new matter in the national phase patent application, the inventor would need to file a continuation in part. This process should be done carefully because it can impact the priority date of the patent application.

If you need to amend your national phase patent applicationit is best to discuss your options with an experienced patent attorney.

If you have questions of comments for the authors of this blog please email us: admin@uspatentlaw.cn