Is it certified for the USPTO?
Every certified job ships with a signed statement of accuracy — the form the USPTO asks for alongside a foreign-language priority document. Need it notarized? $45 a copy.
English · 日本語 · Deutsch — New Smyrna Beach, FL
We Translate Every Claim As If a Court Will Read It.
Because one day, one might. Nakamura & Voss carries patent filings, regulatory submissions and software documentation between English, Japanese and German for mid-size manufacturers — certified, locked to your own glossary, and read cold by a reviewer in the country it’s headed to.
Mon–Fri 10am–5pm · Billed per project, quoted before a word is touched
請求項 → CLAIM
dadurch gekennzeichnet → WHEREIN
明細書 → SPECIFICATION
Konformitätserklärung → DECLARATION OF CONFORMITY
取扱説明書 → OPERATING MANUAL
Bedienungsanleitung → OPERATING INSTRUCTIONS
用語集 → GLOSSARY
前記 → THE
01 — Source Text
Close Enough Is How Good Patents Go Bad.
Most translation is sold by the word and bought on the cheapest quote. Fine for a trade-show brochure. Not fine for claim 14 of a utility patent, a Konformitätserklärung headed to a notified body, or the error strings in firmware shipping to a plant in Nagoya.
So we refuse the volume game. Three languages. Three kinds of document. One terminology glossary per client that every translator, editor and reviewer works from — so Verriegelungselement is “locking member” on page one and page four hundred, in this filing and the next one.
- We refuse to run your claims through a machine.
- We refuse to start before your terms are agreed.
- We refuse to ship a page nobody in-country has read.
“If your translator has never argued about antecedent basis, they shouldn’t be writing your claims.”
02 — Objections, Answered
Ask the Awkward Questions. Your Procurement Team Will.
Eight things engineering managers and patent counsel ask on the first call. Straight answers, because a translation partner who hedges here will hedge on your claims too.
Why only three languages?
Depth beats breadth. Every linguist we use works EN⇄JA or EN⇄DE in engineering and nothing else. Ask us for Korean and we’ll gladly point you elsewhere.
Do you use machine translation?
Never on claims, never on regulatory text. On long software docs we reuse your own approved memory for repeated strings — a human still edits every segment, and the review file shows which.
How long does a filing take?
A 20-page application EN→JA runs about eight business days with in-country review; EN→DE about six. Rush is +35% — and if it truly can’t be done well by your date, we’ll say so.
What does the in-country reviewer do?
Reads the finished text cold, in Japan or Germany, with no source beside it. If a sentence only makes sense to someone who saw the English, it gets flagged and rewritten.
Who owns the glossary?
You do. Delivered in TBX and Excel, yours to keep if you ever leave us — and the reason your next filing is faster to produce than this one.
How are confidential files handled?
Mutual NDA before the first page. Encrypted storage, reviewers under their own NDA, and everything deleted 90 days after delivery unless you ask us to keep your memory.
Why is this agency in Florida?
Time zones work in your favor. Reviewers in Japan work through our night, reviewers in Germany overlap our mornings — files keep moving while New Smyrna Beach sleeps.
03 — Proof by Example
Same Sentence. Two Very Different Patents.
Two typical claim fragments, translated twice. Left: the literal pass a cheap workflow returns. Right: what leaves our desk — and why each change matters once an examiner starts reading.
Plan A · Literal
Word for Word
JA前記ハウジングに回動可能に取り付けられた係止部材を備える
equipped with the locking member which was attached rotatably to the aforementioned housing
DEVorrichtung nach Anspruch 1, dadurch gekennzeichnet, dass das Verriegelungselement federbelastet ist.
Device according to claim 1, thereby characterized, that the locking element is spring-loaded.
Grammatical. Defensible in a classroom. Expensive in an office action.
Plan B · Nakamura & Voss
Claim for Claim
JA前記ハウジングに回動可能に取り付けられた係止部材を備える
comprising a locking member rotatably mounted to the housing
DEVorrichtung nach Anspruch 1, dadurch gekennzeichnet, dass das Verriegelungselement federbelastet ist.
The device of claim 1, wherein the locking member is spring-loaded.
- “Comprising” is the open transitional phrase US examiners expect. “Equipped with” invites a scope argument nobody planned for.
- “The housing,” not “the aforementioned” — clean antecedent basis; the article does the work.
- “Locking member” in both — because your glossary says so, whichever language the source came from.
- “Wherein” for a USPTO filing; “characterised in that” when the same claim is headed to the EPO.
04 — The Free Page
Send Us One Page. Judge Us by It.
Before you sign anything, email a single page — a claim set, a device label, one screen of UI strings. We translate it free, mark up every decision in the margin, and call you to walk through it. Every stage after that is priced per project, in writing.
What to send with your page
- The page itself — PDF, DOCX, XLIFF or a screenshot
- Target language: Japanese, German or English
- Where it’s going: USPTO, EPO, JPO, PMDA, a notified body, or your own UI
- Any glossary or past translation you already trust
Your quote is fixed before a single word is translated.
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The Free Page
$0 · one page, any of our three languages
Back within two business days, with translator’s notes in the margin explaining every term choice. No invoice, no follow-up sequence.
Send the Page -
Terminology Glossary Build
From $1,480 · up to 300 terms, EN/JA/DE
We mine your past filings, manuals and CAD callouts, confirm the terms with your engineers in one 45-minute call, then lock them. Delivered as TBX and Excel.
Scope a Glossary -
Certified Translation
$0.26/word EN⇄DE · $0.32/word EN⇄JA · $385 minimum
A translator and an independent editor on every segment. Signed statement of accuracy included; notarized copies $45 each.
Quote My Filing -
In-Country Reviewer QA
From $640 · per document set
A reviewer living in Japan or Germany, working in your field, reads the target text with no source in sight and flags anything an examiner — or an operator on the line — would stumble on.
Add a Reviewer -
Delivery & Sign-Off
Included · rush delivery +35%
Bilingual review file, clean certified PDF, your updated translation memory, and a change log of every term decision we made along the way.
Talk Timelines
05 — Target Text
The Last Read Is Always a Human One.
No file leaves New Smyrna Beach until a person who lives in the target language has signed off on it. Ask us who that person will be for your project — you’ll get a name and a background before you approve the quote.
Book a 20-Minute Scoping Call
Before You File
Pick Up the Phone. Talk to a Translator, Not a Ticket Queue.
(203) 996-7740Ten to five, Monday to Friday, Eastern. Tell us the filing deadline and the language pair; we’ll tell you on the same call whether it’s realistic.
| Mon–Fri | 10am–5pm |
|---|---|
| Sat–Sun | Email only — answered Monday |