Abstract
In this chapter, machine translation (MT) is first introduced in the context of patent information, and we touch upon what role it can play at various points in the intellectual property (IP) life cycle. We then step back to take a high-level look at what exactly defines MT, how it works, what makes it such a difficult task, as well as some of the more recent advances to overcome these hurdles and how we can go about ensuring that MT systems we develop are actually fit for purpose.
We then explore patent information as an application area for MT and describe how it presents a unique challenge not only for MT but for language technology in general. Finally, we take a closer look at some use cases involving MT and patents to show how they are already bringing significant value to consumers, but that there remains plenty of room for improvement.
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Tinsley, J. (2017). Machine Translation and the Challenge of Patents. In: Lupu, M., Mayer, K., Kando, N., Trippe, A. (eds) Current Challenges in Patent Information Retrieval. The Information Retrieval Series, vol 37. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-53817-3_16
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-53817-3_16
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