Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Of course! Our researchers can obtain copies of documents from many foreign offices, libraries, and other resources. Retrieving documents may incur costs (including copyright fees – if applicable). We will advise you of any retrieval costs upfront. Once we've obtained the document or publication, we will prepare a quote for translation. But before we begin translation, we ask you to examine the document and confirm that it is the document you need.

We do our best to return your quotes within one business day, and most quotes are provided within a few hours. However, for large or complex projects, we may need a little extra time to determine the best approach to meet your budget constraints and deadline. We will keep you informed of our progress.

Absolutely! We work with you to set up your preferences and requirements before or at the time of translation projects. If you are a patent attorney with multiple clients, we can set up translation requirements for each of your clients separately.

The costs and time needed to complete a quality translation depends on many factors, such as the language pair (from source to target language), subject matter and complexity of the text, the size of the team working on the project, and of course, how many words are in the source document!

Whenever possible, we quote based on the number of words (or characters, for Asian languages such as Japanese) in the source document. When working with scanned copies, we will do our best to give an accurate estimate, but there are many factors that influence the ratio between source and target words which cannot be accounted for before translation is underway. Therefore, the final costs will be determined by the word count of the final target file.

For projects with specific deadline and/or budget constraints, we can offer a variety of options, including translation of smaller excerpts from larger documents (for example, the claims section of a large patent application), a summary translation for an overview of the content, or rolling delivery of a multiple-file translation project.

For every project, we take aggressive measures to minimize costs and shorten the time needed to complete the project. That said, here are steps you can take to ensure your translation projects run smoothly:

• Plan ahead: It is always a good practice to call us as soon as possible when you have a translation need. In general, you can expect to pay less when you don't have to request a rush delivery.
• Collaborate with us: We work closely with our clients to understand their preferred terminology, writing styles, and file formats. For customers who want a better value, we can build a custom glossary for your company to achieve consistency and cost savings, and you always have the option of reviewing and approving the glossary terms. Your input now can save time and money in the future!
• Provide editable documents: Whenever possible, send us a text editable document, instead of a PDF created from a scanned image (such as a photocopy). We can work from any source file, but with an editable original document, our translators can work more efficiently and you can get your translation results faster.

While we use specialized systems to manage terminology and improve project efficiency, all of our translations are done by experienced, professional translators who are both native speakers of the target language and well-versed in the subject matter at hand. Machine translation is not capable of understanding the nuances and special terminology used in legal and technical communications.

Full translations provide a word-for-word translation of your original documents in their entirety. Full translations are suitable for any situation where you require high quality and a translation of the entire original document. Full patent and technical translations go through Landon IP’s proprietary QuadCheck^TM quality control process. As needed, full translations can also be certified to be suitable for patent application filing or for submission to any court (e.g., sworn affidavits or depositions). Pricing for full translations is based on number of words or characters and varies by language pair.

Summary translations provide the "gist" and key takeaways of your original documents and do not provide a word-for-word translation. Most summary translations will not go through Landon IP's QuadCheck^TM quality control process. Pricing for summary translations will generally be provided on a per hour basis, rather than on number of words or characters.

Both full translations and summary translations from Landon IP are performed by native language translators with experience in the subject matter.

We take multiple steps to ensure the highest possible translation quality. Every translation is prepared by an experienced native language translator, then edited by a second translator who confirms the completeness and accuracy of the target text. We proof the target text in-house for formatting and typographic mistakes before utilizing our proprietary quality control process, called QuadCheck^TM . Finally, you always have the option of an independent review of our work by someone in your organization. We will incorporate your reviewer's stylistic and terminology preferences, so long as these changes do not alter the content or meaning of the material being presented.

Don't worry, we've been doing this for many years, and we've seen a lot of different languages. We know what you need, and we have the resources to supply it.