Who’s afraid of error messages?
From lost in translation to insight – Part II: Office actions in machine-readable format in the EPO Global Dossier
When you run a search and get an error message, it’s frustrating. As we learned in Part 1, search error messages are not always caused by technical issues or system errors. For example, the document workflow in jurisdictions with non-Latin writing systems might take longer, meaning that certain documents may be unavailable initially.
So an initial feeling of annoyance can actually give way to a deeper understanding of how patent systems, and more specifically patent documentation systems, differ.
In this series of case studies, we explore typical situations in which error messages are displayed and explain what’s really behind these messages. This will help you understand the differences between patent and patent documentation systems, turning annoyance into insight.
Case 2: You can’t open the machine translation of the most recent actions relating to a Chinese patent document in the Global Dossier.
In Espacenet, you find a Chinese patent application which had been published on 29 October 2024. Under “Legal events” (Fig. 1), you learn that the request for substantive examination had been filed and entered into force on 15 November 2024.
Fig. 1: Legal event data of Chinese document CN118869575A in Espacenet
The Global Dossier button under “Bibliographic data” (see Fig. 2) takes you to the European Patent Register, where you can inspect the file online
Fig. 2: Bibliographic data of Chinese document CN118869575A in Espacenet including Link to Global Dossier
Here, you see a list of all documents in this file with their respective URLs (Fig. 3). The documents are available in the original language and, wherever possible, in English (as a machine translation generated on the fly).
Fig. 3: Electronic file inspection for the Chinese document CN118869575A via Global Dossier (status on 16 December 2024)
Fig. 3 shows the documents available on 16 December 2024 in the Global Dossier for the Chinese patent application cited above. The China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA) published the first office action on 21 November 2024 and the patent grant notice on 4 December 2024. For both entries, you can access the original document in Chinese by clicking on the document marked 'ORIGINAL' in parentheses.
However, the links to the English machine translations of the documents (marked 'TRANSLATED') do not seem to work and you receive the following error messages:
Figs. 4 and 5: Error message in the Global Dossier service for the machine translations of the documents “First notice of examination opinions” and “Notification of grant of patent right for invention” – message displayed on 16 December 2024, i.e. before the document became available in a machine-readable version.
In this example, the “unexpected error” is triggered by a workflow-related time lag, not a technical problem per se. When the office actions were issued on 21 November and 4 December 2024 respectively, and made available to the public on the same day, the engine automatically generated the link to the machine translation.
However, as English machine translations are produced on the fly, they can only be created from a machine-readable original text. With some writing systems, creating a machine-readable version of a newly published original document may take additional time. For example, it may take up to a month before documents originating at CNIPA are available in machine-readable form. Until then, English machine translations will not be available to the user.
The engine behind the interface is unable to determine the reason for this delay. As long as no machine-readable document exists, the engine cannot produce an English machine translation and the system reports that an “unexpected error” has occurred.
Key takeaway
If you can’t access a machine translation such as the one in our example, getting an error message may not necessarily refer to a technical error. It may simply mean waiting a few more days until a machine-readable version becomes available.
To be sure, and to rule out an error message due to a technical problem, check when the original office action was issued. In addition, check your firewall and other personal settings that may cause such an error message.
Keywords: Global Dossier, machine translation, legal event, error message