Literalism as a virtue in patent translation

The idiosyncrasies of individual texts oblige translators to take different approaches when translating them. A text whose purpose is to produce emotion, therefore, should not be approached in the same manner as a text intended to transmit information. In this article, we analyze the patent as a paradigm of an informational text. This type of text requires the translator to adopt a predominantly literal focus which is oriented more toward the source language and culture than toward the target.