翻訳コラム

ベストセラーになった小説「ぼくは愛を証明しようと思う」(藤沢数奇著、幻冬舎)を読みました。なぜこのブログで紹介するかというと、弁理士が主人公だからです。モテない弁理士渡辺正樹が恋愛工学をマスターするという話ですが、特許事務所や弁理士の仕事が詳細に書かれていて、田町にある特許事務所の内部をのぞいているような感覚をおぼえます。
田町のカフェで裁判資料を読んでいるとか、事務所に資格取得をめざす文系の女子がアルバイトに来ているとか弁理士の仕事が恋愛工学を通して紹介されています。なぜ主人公が弁理士なのか、そしてなぜここまで特許事務所の内部を書いてくれたのかは謎です。
恋愛工学と特許が関係あるからでしょうか。J-PlatPat(特許庁、INPIT)で「恋愛」をキーワードとして特許を検索してみると、恋愛をストーリーとしたゲームソフトの特許出願が多く出されていました。ビジネスモデル特許やソフトウエア特許が出願できるようになって以来、理系と文系のボーダーが曖昧になってきた気がします。
「恋愛工学」というこのことばも同様です。

I read the best seller novel “I will verify my love" (written by Kazuki Fujisawa, published by Gentosha), and decided to introduce the book in this week's blog because the main character, Masaki Watanabe, is a patent attorney. In the story, Masaki Watanabe is a hero who is not very popular with the ladies, but has however mastered the “science of love". This book gives a peek into the daily routines of patent firms done by patent attorneys as readers can see inside a patent firm in Tamachi.
This book details the work of patent attorneys while explaining the science of love as a way to talk to girls while working. The book has examples of the main character using his science of love to do things such as talk to girls while reading legal documents in a café in Tamachi, or trying to get close to a girl who is working part-time while working on her attorney qualifications. For me it was a true mystery as to why the book had the main character be a patent attorney though. Why were so many details about the patent attorney world detailed?
I wondered if the science of love related to patents, and so I searched the patent application database via the keyword “love" on the J-PlatPat(INPIT, JPO website)and I found many patent applications for story based love games. Ever since applications for business model patents and software patens have been accepted, the line between the language arts and the sciences appears to have become blurred and I suppose the same could apply to the phrase “the science of love", as well.