Patent Translation Services
Protecting a British invention abroad means rewriting it in another language without changing what it covers, and that is the whole of what patent translation is for. Espresso Translations does that work in 150+ languages, with 2,000+ linguists and a second linguist reading every file under ISO 17100. The rates, in pounds: £0.10 per word for standard work, back in 2-3 working days; £30 per page of up to 250 words where the office wants a certified patent translation, back in 24-48 hours; £55 per page where a jurisdiction demands a sworn translation, over 7-14 working days. Our patent work sits inside Espresso’s legal translation services, and a free quote reaches you within 1 hour.
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What is a patent translation service? It is the work of putting a patent application into the language a receiving office works in, closely enough that the claims still cover what they covered before. Espresso Translations picks the translator by technical field first and language pair second, has a second linguist read the result under ISO 17100, signs an NDA before a file moves, and covers the routes a British applicant actually uses: filing at the Intellectual Property Office, EP validation after an EPO grant, PCT national phase entry, and direct filing in Asia. 150+ languages, from £0.10 per word, with an itemised quote inside 1 hour.
What Does a UK Patent Translation From Espresso Include?
It includes a translator who works in the technology itself, a second linguist reading the result under ISO 17100, a signed statement of accuracy where the receiving office asks for one, an NDA agreed before any file changes hands, and terminology held identical across a portfolio through translation memory. That is what professional patent translation services consist of; the rest is scheduling. Patent work is a legal job wearing a technical coat: the translation of patent claims carries the scope of protection, so the file goes to professional patent translators and subject matter experts rather than to whoever happens to be free that afternoon, and it passes through review services to ensure the wording that leaves is the wording that arrived.
Translators picked for the technology, not only the language pair
Selecting a patent translator starts with the subject, not the alphabet. A translator must understand how a claim is built before knowing how to move it into German or Japanese, so Espresso assigns by technical field and our patent translators specialise by industry: pharmaceutical files to chemists, pharmacologists and biotechnologists; software and AI files to computing and electrical engineering graduates; mechanical, chemical, electronics and semiconductor files to engineers who have worked in those industries. That is how the meaning of the original survives an international patent filing, and it is why patent specialists keep protection intact rather than merely making a document readable. Accurate patent translation requires judgement rather than vocabulary.
Does a patent translation need to be certified, and can a solicitor certify it?
Usually not for the filing itself. The EPO, the UKIPO and most national offices want an accurate translation of the specification, not a certified one; certification becomes relevant when the document goes to a court, a registry or a party in a dispute, and each of those publishes its own requirement. In the UK there is no register of sworn translators, so certification means a signed statement from the translator or the company giving the date, the translator’s credentials and contact details — which is what we attach, at £30 per page of up to 250 words in 24 to 48 hours. A solicitor does not certify the translation’s accuracy; a solicitor or notary attests a signature, which is a separate step some bodies ask for on top. Check which of the three the receiving office named before ordering.
What a patent translator has to know besides the language
Fluency on its own qualifies nobody to translate patent applications. Espresso’s experienced patent translators are native speakers of the target language who also know how claims are drafted, how a description has to support them, and what a receiving office will and will not take. Most bring in-depth knowledge of a single industry and years of experience in patent translation behind it, which is what turns a correct sentence into a claim that still covers the same invention.
Glossaries, translation memory and keeping one word for one thing
Terminology on a patent portfolio has to be settled once and then never drift. Espresso builds the glossary before work starts, drawing on patent databases, the receiving office’s own published terminology and any wording the client has approved before, then holds it in translation memory so every later filing reuses it. Advanced translation tools support that work; they do not do the translating. Where a specification has been previously translated for another jurisdiction, the approved wording is reused rather than reinvented, and the translation memories built on one family carry straight into the next.
Confidentiality, UK GDPR and how the files actually move
An unpublished specification is the most sensitive document a business owns. Espresso signs an NDA before anything is sent, restricts the file to the assigned translation team, and moves documents over encrypted transfer rather than ordinary email — all of that is contractual, and confidentiality is what the NDA is for. Separately, a patent file almost always carries personal data in the inventor and applicant details, and a translation supplier processing it on your instructions is a processor. The Information Commissioner’s Office requires a written contract, or other legal act, between a controller and its processor, covering the subject matter and duration of the processing, its nature and purpose, the type of personal data, the categories of data subject and the controller’s rights. Espresso works to that alongside the NDA, and treats data security as part of the job rather than an annex to it.
The receiving office’s own rules, confirmed before translation starts
Every patent office publishes its own language rules and we read them before quoting. The Intellectual Property Office works in English and Welsh and asks for an English translation of a document filed in another language, with the exceptions it sets out itself. The European Patent Office grants in English, French or German and publishes the granted claims in all three. The World Intellectual Property Organization sets the national phase timetable for the Patent Cooperation Treaty. CNIPA, the JPO and KIPO each want the application in their own national language. We prepare documents to what the receiving office publishes, and we say plainly that whether a filing is accepted is that office’s decision and never a translator’s promise.
How Do UK Applicants File Abroad, and What Has to Be Translated?
Four routes carry most British patent work and each asks for something different: a national application at the Intellectual Property Office, which must be in English; a European patent granted by the EPO, which takes effect here as a national EP(UK) patent; PCT national phase entry at the IPO; and direct filing at CNIPA, the JPO or KIPO in the office’s own language. Behind all four sits the Paris Convention priority year, which gives twelve months from the first filing before the foreign applications have to be on file — the one deadline the whole patent system hangs on. Espresso translates on every one of those routes, in 150+ languages, after checking what the receiving office publishes.
| Route | Language the office works in | What Espresso translates |
|---|---|---|
| National application at the IPO | English, or Welsh | Any supporting document that arrives in another language |
| EP(UK) validation after an EPO grant | English, French or German at grant | Nothing: the UK dispenses with post-grant translation under the London Agreement |
| PCT national phase entry at the IPO | English | Specification, claims, abstract and drawing annotations, where the international application was not in English |
| European patent with unitary effect | Not open to the United Kingdom | Nothing for the UK; British cover comes from an EP(UK) validation or a national filing |
| Direct filing at CNIPA, the JPO or KIPO | Chinese, Japanese or Korean | The whole application in the office’s national language |
UK national filing at the IPO
English, or Welsh. Any supporting document in another language needs an English translation. Renewal of a granted UK patent needs none.
EP validation in the UK
The UK is a London Agreement country that dispenses entirely with post-grant translation, so a granted European patent takes effect here as it stands.
PCT national phase at the IPO
Entry on the timetable WIPO publishes for the UK, with a full English translation where the international application was filed in another language.
Unitary patent and the UPC
The UK takes no part in either, so British cover still comes from an EP(UK) validation or a national patent rather than from unitary effect.
PCT National Phase Entry at the Intellectual Property Office
National phase entry is where one international application becomes a set of national ones, and it is the point at which the translations fall due. The Patent Cooperation Treaty lets a single filing hold the right to proceed in more than 150 contracting states. The Patent Cooperation Treaty’s own default for entering the national phase is 30 months from the earliest priority date; WIPO publishes 31 months for the United Kingdom, and the Intellectual Property Office works to that. Entering at the Intellectual Property Office means filing in English, so a WIPO application originally filed in Japanese, Chinese, German or Korean needs the specification, claims, abstract and drawing annotations translated in full.
Miss the national phase deadline and the application is normally finished in that country, with no way back. Espresso books patent translation projects against confirmed filing deadlines rather than against a production queue, which is why filing agents and IP departments tend to send the file when the decision to enter is taken rather than in the last fortnight before it. Our team of expert linguists covers more than 150 languages for national phase work.
EP Validation in the UK After an EPO Grant
Validation is what turns a granted European patent into rights in individual countries, and the United Kingdom is the cheapest place in Europe to do it, because there is nothing to translate. The UK ratified the London Agreement and sits in the group of states that dispense with post-grant translation altogether, whichever of the three EPO languages the patent was granted in. A British applicant validating at home files no translation at all.
The asymmetry is worth planning a budget around. Spain, Italy, Portugal and Turkey still call for a fuller translated patent document, so a European programme run out of London typically needs accurate EP validation translations for the southern EPC states while needing nothing at all at home. Patent validation is therefore where most of a European translation budget goes, and international patent protection costs least in the country the applicant started from. Espresso prepares EP validation work country by country, using translators who know European patent law and have legal translations behind them, and holds one terminology across the whole validation set.
Filing Into the United States From a UK or European Case
A United States application claiming priority from a British or European filing may need a certified English translation of the earlier application. The United States Patent and Trademark Office can ask for that translation together with a signed statement that it represents the original, and it can ask during examination rather than at filing.
Espresso prepares those translations under ISO 17100 for patent attorneys, patent law firms and the in-house legal teams of corporate IP departments moving a UK-originated case into the United States. Where the original was drafted in English there is nothing to translate; where a British applicant is prosecuting a family that began elsewhere, the priority document is the piece that needs the work.
Direct Filing at CNIPA, the JPO and KIPO
Asian filings are where the translation risk runs highest for a British applicant. Chinese, Japanese and Korean assemble a claim differently from English — the word order, the way a limitation attaches, the absence of articles — so a sentence that reads perfectly well can still narrow what the patent covers. Those offices require the application in their national language whether it arrives by direct filing or through PCT national phase entry.
Espresso gives that work to highly qualified translators in electronics, software, pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, mechanical engineering or chemical technology who are native in the target language. Standard work is delivered in 2-3 working days; on a long specification the delivery date is set in the quote that reaches you within 1 hour and worked backwards from your filing deadline. Where the length and the language pair allow it, 24-hour express is available.
Which Technical Fields Do Espresso’s Patent Translators Work In?
Six fields cover most of the work: pharmaceutical and biotechnology, software and AI, mechanical and automotive, chemical and materials science, electronics and semiconductors, and telecommunications. Each file is matched to somebody with professional credentials in that field, because industry-specific patent vocabulary has to be the vocabulary the industry itself uses before it can be the vocabulary an examiner recognises. That is what patent translation expertise means in practice.
Pharmaceutical & biotechnology
Compound and formulation claims, biologics, diagnostics and second-medical-use filings.
Software, AI & computing
Model architectures, cloud infrastructure, security, network protocols and interface claims.
Mechanical & automotive
Production lines, industrial processes, robotics, aerospace parts and precision instruments.
Chemical & materials science
Polymers, catalysts, nanomaterials, cell and battery chemistry, coatings and composites.
Electronics & semiconductors
Chip layout, integrated circuits, sensors, display technology and signal processing.
Telecommunications
Radio systems, antenna design, handset firmware and network equipment claims.
Pharmaceutical and Biotechnology Patents
Life sciences filings are highly specialised and carry the heaviest risk per word. Espresso translates compound claims, formulation patents, biologics, diagnostics, medical device filings and second-medical-use claims for companies running international patent filing programmes out of the UK and for the patent attorneys prosecuting them. IUPAC nomenclature, sequence listings and Markush structures have to arrive intact, because a shifted substituent list describes a different invention.
Work of this kind needs chemistry and pharmacology as much as it needs language, which is why the files go to translators with a scientific background rather than to generalists. Where regulatory papers travel with the application, clients use our Pharmaceutical translation service so that one terminology governs both sets of documents.
Software, AI and Computing Patents
Software patents are drafted to survive two examination standards at once. The European Patent Office looks for technical character and the USPTO applies its own eligibility test, so a translation that blurs the technical effect can cost a claim in Europe while leaving it standing in the United States. Espresso translates machine learning, cloud, cybersecurity, network communication, interface and data-processing filings for technology companies protecting IP in several markets at once.
Translators on this work come out of computing or electrical engineering. They know what a claim means by a module, a layer or a determination step, and they hold those readings steady through the specification so that the patent filing process does not introduce a distinction the drafter never made. International patent translation of a software family is largely an exercise in not inventing new terms.
Mechanical, Automotive and Engineering Patents
Measurements, tolerances, materials and assembly steps have to come through unchanged. Espresso translates mechanical, automotive, manufacturing, robotics, aerospace and precision-instrument patents for manufacturers and for the patent agents filing on their behalf, in more than 150 languages. Where drawings, product specifications and manufacturing manuals travel with the application, our Technical Translation Services keep one glossary across the whole set.
The failure mode here is a quiet one. A tolerance rendered as approximate, a component named two ways in one document, a process step reordered — none of it looks wrong on the page and all of it can matter in a patent infringement argument years later. A second linguist checks the figures and the component names against the source before anything leaves.
Chemical and Materials Science Patents
Espresso translates organic and inorganic chemistry, polymers, catalysts, speciality chemicals, nanomaterials, battery and energy storage, coatings and advanced materials filings. The work comes from chemical manufacturers, research laboratories, universities and IP departments filing through the Patent Cooperation Treaty, at the European Patent Office, and at CNIPA and the JPO.
Chemical claims live or die on naming. IUPAC conventions, reaction mechanisms, molecular structures and Markush language have to be reproduced rather than paraphrased, and a translator who is meticulous about nomenclature is worth more here than one who writes elegantly. Accurate translations in this field get read twice: once by the translator against the source, once by a second specialist against the claim set. High-quality translations of chemical claims are mostly a matter of not paraphrasing anything.
Electronics, Semiconductor and Telecommunications Patents
Espresso translates integrated circuit, chip architecture, sensor, display, embedded software, antenna and signal processing filings for electronics manufacturers, semiconductor companies and telecoms suppliers entering new markets. A global team covers the language pairs these industries actually file in, which in practice means Chinese, Japanese, Korean and German far more often than anything else.
Process vocabulary is the trap. Etching, deposition, lithography and doping each have a settled rendering in the target language, and an unsettled one reads to an examiner as a different process altogether. Translators on this work hold an electrical engineering or semiconductor background, and one terminology is carried across every filing in the family.
Certified or Sworn Patent Translation: Which Does the Office Want?
A certified patent translation is the ordinary requirement: the complete text plus a signed statement from the translator that it is accurate and complete. At Espresso that costs £30 per page of up to 250 words and comes back in 24-48 hours. The USPTO asks for such a statement on a foreign-language priority application, and a number of national offices ask for the same thing during examination. The Intellectual Property Office publishes what it requires for documents filed in another language, and we prepare to that. Espresso provides certified patent translation services under ISO 17100 on every route described on this page.
A sworn patent translation is a different instrument altogether. It is produced by a translator sworn before a court or authorised by a government, and it exists mainly in civil law countries — Spain, Italy, France, Poland and Brazil among them. It costs £55 per page and takes 7-14 working days. The United Kingdom operates no sworn-translator register of its own, so a British company meets this requirement only when it is filing or litigating somewhere that has one.
What qualifications should a patent translator have?
Two things that are checkable, and one that is not negotiable. First, a working command of the technical field — chemistry, biotechnology, software, electronics, mechanical engineering — because the translator has to know what a term names on the apparatus described, not just its dictionary equivalent. Second, familiarity with claim language, where fixed formulations such as “comprising” carry a settled legal meaning that a synonym destroys. Third, native fluency in the target language, with at least five years of professional experience — the minimum for every Espresso linguist. A second linguist then reviews the file under ISO 17100, and Espresso is ATC certified and an ATC member.
Which of the two you need is settled by the office receiving the filing, not by the translator and not by us, so we confirm the published requirement before quoting and match the certification to your translation needs. Espresso prepares the version that office asks for — certified at £30 per page, sworn at £55 — and states plainly what the document carries. Where a client wants an in-country review by local counsel before filing, we deliver in a format that supports it. No translation company can promise that a filing will be accepted or that a patent will be granted; what it can do is meet the requirement the office has published.
| Work | What you receive | Price | Back in |
|---|---|---|---|
| Standard patent translation | A native technical translator, read by a second linguist under ISO 17100 | £0.10 per word | 2-3 working days |
| Certified patent translation | The same, plus the translator’s signed statement of accuracy | £30 per page of up to 250 words | 24-48 hours |
| Sworn patent translation | A translator sworn before a court, where a jurisdiction demands that form | £55 per page | 7-14 working days |
What Patent Translation Costs at Espresso: £0.10 Per Word
Standard patent translation is £0.10 per word. A certified patent translation is £30 per page of up to 250 words. A sworn translation, where a jurisdiction demands one, is £55 per page. Those are the translation rates in full, the quote fixes the figure, and the figure does not move afterwards — which is what law firms, corporations and corporate IP departments need before a translation project can be approved internally.
What moves the total is length and certification, not subject matter. A 9,000-word specification and 9,000 words of office actions cost the same per word whether the field is oncology or antenna design. Translation costs rise only where the receiving office wants certifying, and that is priced per page on top.
Portfolios get cheaper as they grow. The glossary and the translation memory built on the first filing carry into the next, so words already approved are not paid for twice. Across a global patent programme that is where the saving actually sits: not in a discount, but in never retranslating the same description for a fifth jurisdiction. It also removes a good deal of the administrative tasks around a multi-country filing.
Send the specification with the target jurisdictions, the receiving office, whether certification is needed and the filing deadline. A project manager returns an itemised quote within 1 hour with the delivery date on it, and can deal directly with your patent attorney. We understand the need to get several countries away on one day, so if you want to translate patent applications into several languages at once, say so and they are set to a single deadline.
£0.10
per word, standard work, back in 2-3 working days
£30
per page of up to 250 words, certified, back in 24-48 hours
£55
per page, sworn translation, 7-14 working days
How Fast Is a Patent Translation?
Standard work takes 2-3 working days, a certified patent translation 24-48 hours and a sworn translation 7-14 working days, with 24-hour express available where the length and the language pair allow it. Turnaround times move with the size of the document more than with anything else: a 40-page specification is not a 4-page abstract. On anything substantial the date is agreed in the quote and worked backwards from your filing deadline, and that date is the one we keep.
What Happens After You Send Espresso a Specification?
Five steps, the same every time: the file arrives under NDA, a quote comes back within 1 hour, the glossary is built before translation starts, a translator in the right technical field does the work and a second linguist checks it, and the finished translation is delivered in the format the receiving office wants. The workflow is fixed rather than negotiated job by job, which is what makes a filing date plannable. Our project managers run all five, so the patent translation process gives you a single point of contact rather than a queue.
Send the file under NDA
Upload the specification through Espresso’s secure portal with the target languages, the receiving office, the technical field, whether certification is needed and the filing deadline. The NDA is signed before anything is transferred, which matters most while the application is still unpublished.
Get a quote back within 1 hour
A project manager reads the file, checks the language pair against the receiving office’s published requirements, assigns a translator with the right subject background and sends an itemised quote inside the hour, with the rate, the delivery date and any certification priced separately.
Build the glossary and the translation memory
Before a word is translated, the approved terminology is assembled from patent databases, the office’s own published terms, prior art in the field and anything the client has signed off before. Existing clients start from their own memory, so the fifth filing in a family reads like the first one did.
Translate, then have a second linguist read it
A native speaker who works in the technical field translates the patent claims, specification, abstract, figure descriptions and supporting documents. Neural machine translation is not used on patent text, because a claim turns on syntax that a model reorders without noticing. Translation automation stops at the memory and the terminology database: translation memory and CAT tools support the translator’s consistency, but every sentence is written and every edit made by a qualified human. A second linguist then reads the whole file against the source, checking terminology, claim structure, figures and formatting requirements against what the receiving office asks for, before anything is released. That second read is what ISO 17100 requires, it is where translation quality is actually decided, and it is not optional here.
Delivery, in the format the office wants
The translation arrives in the format the receiving office requires, with the signed statement of accuracy attached where the filing needs certifying. Certified work comes back in 24-48 hours and standard work in 2-3 working days, by email as a signed PDF. Your project manager checks the delivery against the filing deadline and stays on the account for the next jurisdiction.
Is patent translation confidential and how is data security ensured?
Yes, and it is set up before the file moves. A signed non-disclosure agreement covers the project manager and every linguist on the job, which matters for patents because disclosure before filing can affect novelty. Files are uploaded over an encrypted connection and held on access-controlled systems, with access limited to the people assigned to that specification rather than open to a pool. Information security here is a short access list and a signed agreement rather than a badge. Nothing is passed to a public machine-translation service, where submitted text can leave your control entirely. Terminology built for your portfolio stays yours and is reused on your later filings, not shared across clients.
How Can One Word in a Claim Change What a Patent Covers?
Claims set the boundary of protection, and in translation a single word moves that boundary permanently. Take a claim to a fastening device comprising a first member and a second member. Render fastening device as connecting apparatus, or member as component, and the sentence still reads correctly while the boundary has quietly shifted. The word comprising is settled in patent law as open-ended: it admits elements beyond the ones listed. Translate it with a closed equivalent and the claim narrows with nobody intending it. In litigation, in an infringement argument, in examination at the European Patent Office or the USPTO or CNIPA, that difference is read straight off the page — a competitor designs around the narrower wording, an examiner refuses the application, a court reads the translated patent differently from the original. Once the filing is in, correcting a claim limitation usually costs the filing date. Accurate patent translations are a protection exercise and not a language one.
Espresso’s answer to that risk is procedural rather than heroic, because expert patent translation is mostly procedure. The file goes to somebody who works in the technology and understands IP law in the target jurisdiction; the terminology is fixed and approved before translation begins; a second specialist patent linguist reads the finished text against the source and checks the translations to ensure nothing has drifted; and the whole of it runs inside a quality management system rather than on one person’s good day. Pharmaceutical files go to life scientists, software to computing specialists, chemical to chemists, mechanical to engineers. None of that is glamorous, and all of it is why a claim comes out the far side covering what it covered going in.
What Else Does Espresso Translate Around a Patent Filing?
A patent rarely travels on its own. We translate licensing agreements, assignments, engineering drawings, regulatory files, research papers and correspondence under the same ISO 17100 process and the same NDA, which is what a trusted patent translation supplier is actually for. These IP services exist because an IP department that has to find five suppliers for one filing has already lost the week, and because the wider language services around patents and IP are where terminology usually escapes. International IP work makes that harder, not easier. IP translations and legal documents that sit outside the specification still have to use the specification’s words.
Espresso Translations is a patent translation company rather than a marketplace: the work goes to a linguist with real years in the relevant field, and a second qualified reviewer reads it before delivery, which is what high-quality patent translation costs in time. Translation agencies differ mainly in whether that linguist is engaged before you order or looked for afterwards, so it is worth asking. Where a filing runs past ordinary document translation — a portfolio-wide glossary, several jurisdictions at once, a deadline that will not move — a project manager scopes the professional translation work with you and stays on it. Contact us with the specification and the deadline and the answer comes back the same working hour.
Legal Translation Services
Contracts, licences, assignments, patent litigation bundles and court documents related to patent families and IP disputes — see our Legal Translation Services.
Technical Translation Services
Engineering drawings, technical documentation, product specifications and manuals filed alongside an application — see our Technical Translation Services.
Pharmaceutical Translation Services
Regulatory submissions, clinical trial documents and biotechnology files supporting a pharmaceutical patent — see our Pharmaceutical Translation Services.
Scientific Translation Services
Research papers, laboratory records, scientific publications and innovation files connected to an application — see our Scientific Translation Services.
Business Translation Services
Licensing contracts, IP-related documents, commercial documentation and internal communications — see our Business Translation Services.
2,000+
Linguists
ISO 17100
Certified quality standard
1 hour
Free quote
150+
Languages Supported
What Else Do Clients Ask About Patent Translation in the UK?
How much does patent translation cost per word in the UK?
Standard patent translation costs £0.10 per word at Espresso Translations. A certified patent translation is £30 per page of up to 250 words, and a sworn translation £55 per page where a jurisdiction demands one. Send the specification and an itemised quote comes back within 1 hour, with the rate and the delivery date fixed before you commit to anything.
How long does a patent translation take?
Standard work is delivered in 2-3 working days, a certified patent translation in 24-48 hours and a sworn translation in 7-14 working days. Where the length and the language pair allow it, 24-hour express is available. Turnaround times move mainly with the size of the document, so on a long specification the date is agreed in the quote and worked backwards from your filing deadline.
When does the PCT national phase have to be entered in the UK?
The Patent Cooperation Treaty’s default for national phase entry is 30 months from the earliest priority date, and WIPO publishes 31 months for the United Kingdom. Entry at the Intellectual Property Office is made in English, so an international application filed in another language needs the specification, claims, abstract and drawing annotations translated in full. Espresso books the work against that date rather than against a production queue.
Does a European patent granted by the EPO need translating for the UK?
No. The United Kingdom ratified the London Agreement and sits in the group of states that dispense with post-grant translation altogether, whichever of the European Patent Office’s three official languages the patent was granted in, so EP validation here needs no translated text at all. The rest of the EPC is not like that: Spain, Italy, Portugal and Turkey still call for translated documentation, so a European programme normally needs EP validation translations abroad while needing none at home. Espresso prepares those country by country.
Does the unitary patent cover the United Kingdom?
No. The United Kingdom takes no part in the European patent with unitary effect or in the Unified Patent Court, so unitary effect stops at the UK border. Cover here comes from validating the granted European patent as a national EP(UK) patent, or from a national filing at the Intellectual Property Office. A programme covering both the EU and the UK therefore runs two routes, and we translate for whichever of them applies.
Do you provide certified patent translation for filing?
Yes. Every certified patent translation carries the translator’s signed statement that the translation is complete and accurate, which is the form the USPTO asks for on a foreign-language priority application and that a number of national offices ask for during examination. It costs £30 per page of up to 250 words and is delivered in 24-48 hours. Where a jurisdiction wants a sworn translation instead, that is £55 per page over 7-14 working days.
How do you keep terminology consistent across a patent family?
The glossary is built before translation starts, from patent databases, the receiving office’s own published terminology, prior art in the field and any wording the client has approved before. It is held in translation memory, so the second and fifth filings in a family reuse the wording of the first rather than inventing their own. A second linguist checks terminology across the whole file before delivery.
Do your patent translators work in the technical field of the patent?
Yes. Each file is assigned to a translator with professional credentials in its subject: pharmaceutical patents to life scientists, software patents to computing and electrical engineering specialists, chemical patents to chemists, mechanical patents to engineers. Espresso does not give a complex specification to a general legal linguist with no technical background, because the terminology in a claim has to be the terminology the industry uses.
Do you sign an NDA, and how is personal data handled?
An NDA is signed before any document is transferred, access is restricted to the assigned translation team and files move over encrypted transfer. Confidentiality of the invention itself is contractual, and the NDA is what covers it.
Personal data is a separate question. Inventor and applicant details are personal data, and a supplier translating them on your instructions is a processor, so the Information Commissioner’s Office requires a written contract, or other legal act, covering the subject matter and duration of the processing, its nature and purpose, the type of personal data, the categories of data subject and the controller’s rights. Espresso works to that alongside the NDA.
Can you translate one specification into several languages at once?
Yes. Multilingual patent translation for international patent filing and PCT national phase entry is coordinated by one project manager across the language teams, with a shared glossary and translation memory so the versions do not drift apart. Tell us the filing deadline and the jurisdictions and the whole set is worked to a single date, so the filings that protect the invention go in together.
Do you use machine translation on patents?
No. Espresso does not use machine translation to translate patent claims or specifications, because claim scope turns on syntax and on settled terms of art that a model reorders without noticing. Every patent translation is written by a professional patent translator with technical field expertise and then read independently by a second linguist.
CAT tools, translation memory and terminology management are used to hold consistency across a family. They support the translator and never replace the translating.
What patent documents do you translate, and into which languages?
Patent applications, claims, specifications, abstracts, figure descriptions, drawing annotations, prior art references, office action responses, foreign priority applications, PCT national phase documents, EP validation documents, prosecution files, litigation material and licensing documentation, along with the legal and technical documents filed alongside them.
Espresso works in 150+ languages with 2,000+ linguists, covering the pairs UK applicants actually file in — German, French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Dutch, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Arabic, Russian and Turkish among them — for filing at the Intellectual Property Office, the EPO, the USPTO, CNIPA, the JPO and KIPO.
