1. What about any proprietary information in my translation memory?

2. Am I the rightful owner of the target part of the translation memory?

3. What is the ownership status of my translation memory once I license it to third parties?

4. What is the role of TM Marketplace in all of this?

5. Do I have to guarantee the quality of my translation memory?

6. What database/translation memory formats does my translation memory have to be in?

7. Do I receive a one-time licensing fee or a recurring fee for every licensee?

8. What do I charge for my translation memory?

9. Is there any upfront cost for me?

10. I have hundreds of individual translation memories. Does that make a difference?

11. What language combinations are you interested in?

12. What industries do you focus on?

1. What about any proprietary information in my translation memory?

We realize that this is the first question on many minds.

To answer this, we would start by asking you: What content in your translation memory is truly confidential? In our experience, translation memories typically contain data that has already been published in some form or other and can therefore be accessed by the public anyway. Confidential and unpublished communications are usually not included in the translation memory, even though they may have been translated. After all, translation memories are usually used by third parties (translation vendors) and are therefore not an ideal place to store confidential information.

Still, we do offer procedures to increase the security of the data in the translation memories. We use scrambling algorithms that allow us to mix the database content so that the re-constitution of originating documents becomes impossible. Also, we offer the replacement of proper names (such as product or company names) with place holders to assure a certain anonymity of the database content.

We encourage you to give us a call if you are uncertain about this.

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2. Am I the rightful owner of the target part of the translation memory?

Yes, provided that you hold the intellectual property rights to the source texts and that you have contractually obligated your translation vendors to turn over any possible copyrights to the translation. We would be glad to provide you with language to include in your contracts with translation vendors which will ensure your ownership.

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3. What is the ownership status of my translation memory once I license it to third parties?

You will remain the sole owner of the translation memory and the licensee can neither sublet the data nor mix it with existing data.

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4. What is the role of TM Marketplace in all of this?

You can imagine us as the über-brokers. We

• categorize your translation memory according to industry and language
• create the contact between you and potential licensees of the database
• provide you with licensing contracts between you and the licensee
• provide you with a quality assurance template for you to describe your translation memory(s)
• convert your translation memory into the format the licensee needs
• modify your translation memory data so that proper names and other potentially confidential data are replaced (if desired)
• test and guarantee the structural integrity of the translation memory
• maintain the contact between you and the licensee for an ongoing relationship with the possibility of licensing updates

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5. Do I have to guarantee the quality of my translation memory?

You will have to fill out a Quality Assurance Certificate (QAC) that outlines the translation, editing, proofreading, and publication status of the linguistic material. We will test the translation memory for structural integrity.

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6. What database/translation memory formats does my translation memory have to be in?

We accept any commercially available format or any accepted exchange format that we can then convert to the format the licensee needs.

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7. Do I receive a one-time licensing fee or a recurring fee for every licensee?

Because you remain the owner of your translation memory at all times, you will receive a license fee for your translation memory from every new licensee. This model enables you to recover a significant part of your original translation costs.

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8. What do I charge for my translation memory?

This is up to you. However, we would be glad to help you find an appropriate licensing fee.

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9. Is there any upfront cost for me?

No. We will only charge a transaction fee for every successful transaction.

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10. I have hundreds of individual translation memories. Does that make a difference?

We realize that most corporations do not store their translation assets in only one translation memory. For the sake of licensing, we would be glad to either merge your translation memories into large language-pair-specific databases, or offer them as individual databases.

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11. What language combinations are you interested in?

We are interested in any language combination that you maintain translation memories in.

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12. What industries do you focus on?

We focus on any industry.

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