Can machine translations be used for foreign language prior art documents?

This page is an FAQ based on guidance from the Manual of Patent Examining Procedure. It is provided as guidance, with links to the ground truth sources. This is information only: it is not legal advice.

Yes, examiners can use machine translations of foreign language documents in prior art rejections, but with certain considerations. The MPEP provides the following guidance:

“Examiners may rely on a machine translation of a foreign language document unless the machine translation is not of sufficient quality to be adequate evidence of the contents of the document.“

However, there are important caveats:

• If an applicant provides evidence showing that the machine translation does not accurately represent the document’s contents, they can request a human translation.
• The examiner should grant such a request if the applicant provides evidence of inconsistency between the machine translation and the actual content.

The MPEP cites the case of In re Orbital Technologies Corporation, 603 Fed. App’x 924, 932 (Fed. Cir. 2015) as a reference for this guideline.

For resources on translations available to examiners, the MPEP directs to MPEP § 901.05(d).