A visit of Geoffrey Westgate to the Caspian Higher School of Interpreting and Translation

On the 8-14th of November, the Astrakhan State University had an opportunity to welcome Geoffrey Westgate, the Head of the Support Section of PCT Translation Service, the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) which is one of the 17 specialized agencies of the United Nations (UN). During his visit, he met the MA students of the Caspian Higher School of Interpreting and Translation and made a presentation on the topic “Innovation in a Multilingual World”. Geoffrey Westgate talked about the principal functions of the WIPO: the organization maintains registration activities (international patents, trademarks, industrial designs, geographical indications), ensures the intergovernmental cooperation on administrative issues of the intellectual property, establishes technical databases of terminology etc. Mr. Westgate paid a special attention to the specific WIPO resource called Pearl: this multilingual WIPO terminology database provides users with the access to scientific and technical terms, taken from patent documentation that facilitates the search and exchange of scientific and technical knowledge and provides for the use of correct terms in different languages. Moreover, Mr. Westgate spoke on the opportunity to apply for fellowship in the WIPO and explained what kind of knowledge a candidate should have, how the process of filing documents and job interviewing is performed. At the end of the meeting, the MA students asked questions about the WIPO’s activity, as well as the opportunities to participate in the fellowship programme of the organization, since two graduates of the Caspian Higher School of Interpreting and Translation – Diana Kadyrmatova and Karina Kulova have been chosen as participants of the fellowship programme. Being one of the best fellows, Diana was offered a contract; and now she is working with WIPO on the development of the WIPO Pearl database! Since Russian is an official language of the WIPO, our MA students have all opportunities to get the knowledge of patent technical terminology and apply for a fellowship in the international organization.