Japanese Patent/Scientific/Technical Translation Boutique: Lise & Partners, Inc. High-quality translation made possible by rare in-house translation capability, something that most translation providers merely pretend to have.

We specialize in interpreting for IP-related cases, and have more than 25 years of experience providing interpreting for both depositions and witness preparation in litigation and other legal matters involving Japanese entities. Read More

No. 29: How Many Cooks You Require Depends on the Quality of Your Ingredients (February 6, 2012) <--NEW: Claims of having three to five people check a translation after translation before it is delivered, if true, often just mean that the quality of the original translation was very poor, many times including poor English and a lack of understanding of the subject matter on the part of people upstream in the process.
No. 28: Can't Anbody Here Play This Game? (January 2, 2012): Paraphrase this Casey Stengel quote by asking a translation seller whether they have anybody themselves that can translate. The honest answer in many cases would have to be something like "almost nobody" or "yes, but not in the languages you are concerned with."
No. 27: The Honyaku Mailing List: An Alternative Method for Discovering the Abilities of Japanese/English Translators (December 16, 2011): Letting it all hang out, some members of this mailing list for JA/EN translators seem not to worry that silly questions and wrong guesses at answers can be read not only colleagues, but also by the very translation consumers they purport to be able to serve.
No. 26: A Look Behind the Mirrors and Smoke Used by Many Translation Brokers (December 14, 2011): The fantastic stories told by most translation brokers serve well to hide the truths about their businesses specifically, and how the translation brokering business works in general.
No. 25: Strange English in US Patent Applications from Japan (December 1, 2011): Strange English and worse make it to the filing stage by a combination of failure to act and acting to invite failure.
No. 24: Why Does Patent Translation for Filing Overseas Purchased From Japanese Patent Firms Cost So Much? (November 14, 2011): The answer lies in an excessively complex brokering network and the willingness of Japanese manufacturers to tolerate a service-bundling scheme that only serves to increase translation costs.
No. 23: Street Smarts for Translation Providers (November 1, 2011): Without them, you stand a good chance of being a display for tire marks.
No. 22: Distinguishing Between True Translation Companies and Translation Brokers (June 5, 2011): The latter are more common than the former, and can be found selling to you virtually daily.
No. 21: The Numbers Games Played by Translation Brokers (April 16, 2011): Simple arithmetic demonstrates that the claims of some translation brokers are highly suspicious.
No. 20: What Often Happens After You Place Your Order for Translation with a Translation Broker (February 14, 2011): Unbeknownst to most clients, a mysterious tragicomic series of events often unfolds after a translation order is placed.
No. 19: Almost No Translations Are Done at Translation Companies (February 8, 2011): And that includes those mass-production translation brokers that you gave those documents to this morning.
No. 18: Translator Venue Laundering by US Translation Brokers (August 8, 2010): Some US translation brokers engage in "translator venue laundering" when the don't tell you in what country your documents were translated.
No. 17: The Myths and Reality of Attempting to Transfer Japanese-to-English Translation Tasks to Developing Economies with Cheap Labor (July 17, 2010): The manufacture of sophisticated electronic gadgets has largely been outsourced to developing economies. Is this likely to succeed with Japanese-to-English translation?
No. 16: Comments by a US Patent Professional on the Quality of US Patent Applications Translated from Japanese (June 14, 2010): Terminology used in US patent applications of Japanese origin is sometimes not what people skilled in the art would use in the US. James Judge has some comments, and suggestions for corrective action that could be taken by the USPTO.
No. 15: Some Thoughts on Selecting Translation Service Providers for Japanese Patent Translation (May 7, 2010): A little bit of due diligence can go a long way to assure yourself that a translation provider has what it takes to assure the quality of the translations they sell you.
No. 14: The Difficulty of Securing Translators with the Three Core Competencies Required of a Japanese Patent Translator: Cutting Through the Hype and the Misconceptions (May 6, 2010): A spectrum of new tools and the structure of the translation industry makes it difficult for a translation user to secure the services of a translator having what it takes.
No. 13: Three Core Competencies Required of a Japanese Patent Translator (May 3, 2010): Difficult to acquire and difficult to find a translator who has made the investment to acquire these basic skills.
No. 12: Shooting Your Deposition Right in Its Interpreter (May 1, 2010): The dangers of not providing your deposition interpreter sufficient reference materials.
No. 11: WIPO Reports Drop in 2009 PCT Patent Filings (February 9, 2010): A closer look indicates that most higher-ranking Japanese companies actually increased their PCT filings.
No. 10: Don't Question Questions (July 30, 2009): Professional Japanese translators know what they don't know and tend to ask questions when they need advice. No questions from the translator does not necessarily mean that everything is alright.
No. 9: Translation is Not a Commodity (July 23, 2009): Wheat, sugar, and eggs are commodities. There are a number of good reasons why translation is not.
No. 8: It is 2:00 in the Morning. Do You Know Where Your Translation Is? (July 7, 2009): The easy availability of unknownable translators via the Internet has complicated the task of assuring both translation quality and the confidentiality of your documents.
No. 7: Personal Names in Japanese-to-English Translations (May 18, 2009): Multiple readings for a single character in Japanese can cause a high degree of uncertainty when rendering personal names.
No. 6: Year Dating in Japanese Patent Numbers (March 26, 2009): Deciphering the Western year from Japanese patent numbers.
No. 5: Seals as Used on Japanese Discovery Documents (January 1, 2009): Several types of seals exist and have different meanings.
No. 4: Ordering Translation is More Than Issuing a Purchase Order (Dec. 26, 2008): Providing the translator with the required context and reference materials beforehand can save the translator much grief and eliminate some risks for the translation consumer as well.
No. 3: Taking Depositions by Telephone: The Problems Magnify When Interpreting is Required (Mar. 10, 2008): A scheduling nightmare that could have been avoided resulted in more than a few rough spots in a recent interpreting assignment in Seoul.
No. 2: Attorney Gets Surprise Trip to Korea (Mar. 10, 2007): Attorneys resident in the US and coming to Japan need a deposition visa to participate in depositions taken in Japan. Without one, you could be in for a surprise.
No. 1: Real-Time Court Reporting in Japanese (Nov. 30, 2005): In spite of the language-related problems, this technology is actually practical in Japanese. Unfortunately, vested interests appear to be keeping real-time reporting out of the courts.