Idiosyncrasies of German patent translation — part 1

Why translate German patents?

Since Germany is a contracting nation to the PTC and EPC, there is broad scope for getting German patents validated and/or ‘counter-filed’ in other countries as part of an international patent application. Given the dominance of English, not only as an official and accepted language with WIPO, EPO and many International Searching Authorities, but also as a major global language of science and trade, there is equally great need for German to English patent translation.

Patent translations in English are often used as an intermediary language for further translation into other regional languages. This makes the precision of such German to English translations particularly important. Seemingly minor discrepancies, errors or inconsistencies could potentially be magnified by the time a second or third translation is produced on the basis of the first English translation.

Translation into any language will have its own unique set of challenges and intricacies, and German to English translation is no exception.

General requirements of patent translation

Every single patent translation brings its own new and context-dependent challenges, where interpretation of meaning is sought across the different patent application documents (e.g. support and clarification of the claims will be sought in the description and drawings to an invention). In fact, it is always necessary to cross-reference parts of any text among the relevant application documents and drawings, not only for the sake of consistency of terms in the translation, but also to ensure the most basic understanding of how various components of an invention relate to one another and their nature (function, shape, location etc.). The translator will also often have to refer to a family document or even a prior art document for the sake of clarity.

Aside from the need for ‘intrinsic’ interpretation (i.e. using the text in question) of a patent document and its associated application documents (i.e. with the need to seek coherence, logic and consistency within a text and its translation), humans are messy, fallible and often illogical creatures. The authors of patent documents will create very real challenges for very human reasons: with typographical errors, inconsistent usage of terms, incorrect or inconsistent use of reference signs, errors with syntax and grammar, non-adherence to drafting rules and guidelines and/or inadvertent logical errors. It takes a degree of skill and experience to navigate these obstacles — knowing when to reproduce errors, find creative workarounds or make minor corrections (e.g. with basic typographical errors). In the case of some egregious errors in a source text, at first it can appear impossible to find an adequate translation. However, no matter the type of error encountered, the nature of the source language (e.g. German) will inevitably shape the form that many of those errors will take.

We will explore and share some of the unique aspects of German translation with you. And, hopefully, it will become quickly apparent just how much care, attention and effort are required to produce precise and quality patent translations.

Idiosyncrasies of German patent translation at a glance

1. Structure and word order

German sentences are often long and highly structured, but often with nested clauses and a lot more flexible word order than in English. Sometimes the order of clauses has to be flipped just to obtain a more natural word order in English. Nested clauses can throw up issues with the use of articles if the first clause in which a noun is met in a German sentence has to be flipped and made a second or third clause, for instance, in the English sentence, where the indefinite article will now have to be the definite article. Also, strict word order rules mean that associated verbs for a single clause can be separated by several lines of text in German — which in some cases means verbs being forgotten/omitted altogether by the author and/or a careful parsing of a sentence by the reader to match up a verb with its clause. The result of the above can be long trains of thought requiring a re-ordering of sentence structure to be more easily read and followed in English.

2. Passive voice

German patents heavily rely on passive voice to maintain an objective and formal tone. On the other hand, English patents tend to favour a more direct active voice, and the passive voice can often lead to unnaturally sounding and unclear sentences in English. Careful balance is needed to preserve the original intent of the author, bearing in mind that conciseness and clarity are actual requirements for patent claims.

3. Punctuation differences

German uses commas more frequently than English, especially in long sentences. Simply reproducing commas in English translations is not possible. The rules governing their use in English are different and may also depend in some cases on style guides. One instance of caution is where commas and their absence are the difference between defining and non-defining clauses. A comma or its absence could literally affect the scope of protection for an invention in English.

4. Non-equivalent words

There are words in German that are translated in any number of ways depending on the context or not at all.

For instance, the words “jeweils” and “jeweilig” are frequently mistranslated by inexperienced translators, and using context-dependent equivalents (perhaps in an attempt to fill valency in a sentence) can distort meaning. It is often necessary to actually check the wider context (e.g. to see whether several objects/components are referred to) to determine how to correctly translate “jeweils” and “jeweilig”. It is not uncommon to refer to the reference signs used and drawings in order to correctly interpret the meaning of “jeweilig”. The term “respective” (as an example of a possible translation for “jeweilig”) in English may require using plural forms of nouns in an English translation where singular nouns are used in the German source text.

Modal verbs are used differently in German too. The modal verb “sollen” has various meanings. Some common uses of the word “sollen” are to indicate: recommendations (e.g. should), purpose or intent (supposed to, intended to/for, aim), indirect statements (in which case the indicative form of the verb is most often required). Furthermore, the “sollte(n)” form is additionally used in conditional sentences.

In summary

German patent translation not only requires an excellent grasp of the German and English languages — syntax, grammar, usage and style ­– but also a knowledge of patent language conventions and terminology, as well as experience and skill in knowing how to negotiate the differences between these languages and being able to familiarise oneself with a given subject matter in hand and resolve issues on a case-by-case and context-dependent basis (i.e. with research and reference checking).