Report On Communications Patent Translation Under The Guidance Of Skopos Theory

A patent is a set of exclusive rights granted by a sovereign state to an inventor or assignee for a limited period of time in exchange for detailed public disclosure of an invention. With the rapid development of China’s economy, the communications industry in China has developed to an unprecedented level. As a result, the rate of technology innovation in communications is scaling up, and a large number of patent applications are being filed by companies every year. If the companies want their intellectual property rights to be protected worldwide, they need to file an English abstract of the patent together with the application to the World Intellectual Property Organization(WIPO) first, and then the patent application is translated into the target text when it enters into the national stage. Thus, the demand for patent translation has been increased. This report takes Vermeer’s skopos theory as the guidance and attempts to apply this theory to communications patent translation.The report is based on the writer’s patent translation practice at Beijing RWS Science &Technology Information Consultancy Co., Ltd.(hereinafter referred to as BJRWS), and this report provides an explicit description of the background of the task, its purpose, its process as well as case analysis. With case analysis, the writer gives a comprehensive review of skopos theory established by Hans Vermeer and communications patent translation strategies guided by this theory. Since the skopos theory focuses on translation as an activity with an aim or purpose,and on the intended addressee or audience of the translation, the writer suggests that a patent translator should give sufficient consideration to the function and purpose of the target text, pay attention to the vocabulary characteristics, the syntactic characteristics and the discourse characteristics of a patent, and adopt proper translation strategies in the communications patent translation process. Based on the translation project that forms part of the report, the writer hopes it can inspire some patent translators and facilitate the development of communications patent translation in China.