INTERNATIONAL patent application 97/12220 sheds light on why translation
costs are so high. Inventor Samir Chachoua, a Mexican living in Australia, has
filed more than 1300 pages of text in 90 countries, but the title of the patent,
鈥淢ethod for the identification and therapeutic use of disease-associated
organisms, elements and forces鈥�, gives little clue about the content. The text
includes the inventor鈥檚 thoughts on many subjects, such as the risk that radio
devices might cause cancer.
The audio typist who transcribed the document has included asides such as:
鈥淪am, in this category we can include all the machines so as not to have a
separate set of patents.鈥� Elsewhere it refers to 鈥渕umbling something鈥� and
includes near-illegible hand-written notes. The international patent examiners
are obviously completely baffled and unable to find out if anything similar has
been previously filed.
