In 2015, the EPO acknowledged that European patent filings had reached an all-time high, with 274,174 patents filed in the prior year—marking the fifth consecutive year of increased filings. This continued growth means firms will be faced with an increasing need to coordinate validation, which can be time-consuming, costly, and tedious.

As one of the oldest and most established language services providers in the world, TransPerfect has a long history of patent translation experience. Seeing a strong industry demand for a fully streamlined process, we launched our new EP validation offering to provide an end-to-end solution for patent translation and global filing.

Whether you are an in-house attorney, paralegal, or member of a law firm coordinating on behalf of a corporation, the tasks associated with the EP validation process (working with foreign filing agents in Europe, arranging translations, providing filing instructions, etc.) can become overly burdensome and may conflict with higher priority tasks such as patent drafting or responding to office actions. The work is largely administrative, yet many senior associates and partners are responsible for handling this process. Determining annual spend or cost per application is yet another cumbersome process for corporations and their counsel—especially considering that invoices from law firms are often convoluted or combined with legal work unrelated to EP validation. It’s also a common tendency for clients with legal backgrounds to focus on attorney fees rather than translation fees, despite the fact that translation fees comprise the majority of EP validation costs.

TransPerfect oversees the filing process from start to finish, eliminating burdens from clients’ to-do lists so they can tackle higher-priority, substantive matters. Our approach to coordinating the EP validation workflow increases productivity, reduces fees, and ensures quality. Furthermore, because of our translation tenure and the breadth of our client base, we offer extremely competitive rates and work with an extensive network of specialized linguists.

To manage this process, we’ve built a selective IP practice group with experienced senior patent project managers and in-house patent experts who advise on best practices and procedures for our diverse client base. Additionally, TransPerfect’s network of top-tier foreign filing agents have been rigorously vetted.

The launch of our cohesive patent translation and EP validation service offering is further proof of TransPerfect’s mission to best serve our clients' needs. We look forward to providing the same standard of excellence in the patent filing space that our clients have come to expect from us in other areas.