Corpora: Machine translation patent

Raphael Salkie (R.M.Salkie@bton.ac.uk)
Wed, 15 Oct 1997 17:17:35 +0100 (BST)

The patent in question apparently relates specifically to the use of
Esperanto as an Interlingua.

There was an MT project in Holland with the name Distributed Language
Translation (DLT) in the late eighties/early nineties which used a
modified form of Esperanto as an interlingua. Various publications
appeared by Bart Papegaai and Klaus Schubert describing the project, which
I understand has now been abandoned.

Does anyone know if there is any connection between DLT and the company
that has now filed the patent? If not then the company has less grounds
for claiming originality. If there is a connection (say, for instance,
the new company somehow acquired rights over any DLT deliverables) then
that would strengthen the patent.

Does anyone have information?

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Raphael Salkie, Tel: (+44) 01273 643335
The Language Centre, Tel: (+44) 01273 643337
University of Brighton Tel: (+44) 01273 600900
Falmer, Brighton, BN1 9PH
England.

Fax: (+44) 01273 690710
Email: r.m.salkie@brighton.ac.uk
*** INTERSECT Web page:
http://www.bus.bton.ac.uk/FTNT/BusSchool/Depts/LangCent/Intersect.html
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