Annoucement of Pre-Exam 2020 in OJ EPO - incl registration and enrolment information

The Announcement of the European qualifying examination 2020 - Pre-examination and main examination has been published  in OJ 2018, A108.

A few aspects are cited below, for all detail refer to the Notice itself:



1. Compulsory registration

Enrolment for the pre-examination 2020 will only be possible for candidates who have registered by 15 January 2019 at the latest (see Notice from the Examination Secretariat, OJ EPO 2018, A99).

2. Dates of the pre-examination and the main examination and deadlines for enrolment

2.1 Date of the pre-examination and enrolment deadline
The pre-examination will be held on 16 March 2020.
Registered candidates may enrol from 1 February until 30 April 2019. After 30 April 2019, it will not be possible to apply for enrolment for the pre-examination 2020.
To ensure a smooth enrolment procedure for the EQE, candidates are reminded of the strict application of the closing dates for enrolment. Articles 121 and 122 EPCdo not apply.
II. Enrolment process

2. Professional activity

2.1 Required periods of professional activity
Candidates wishing to enrol for the pre-examination for the first time must have completed a total period as defined in Article 11(2)(a) REE of at least two years by 16 March 2020.
Candidates who have passed the pre-examination and wish to enrol for the main examination for the first time must, at the date of the examination, have completed a total period as defined in Article 11(2)(a) REE of at least three years.
Notes from the blog editor: 
  • Art.11(2)(a) relates to patent attorney trainees. A longer period applies for EPO examiners. The notice also indicates the conditions for the applicability of Article 11(5) REE and Rule 16 IPREE  for remission of the period of professional activity.
  • If you work part-time, 1 calendar year between the pre-exam and main exam may not be sufficient to be able to sit the main exam in 2021, in particular not if you only just satisfied the 2-year requirement when you sit the pre-exam in 2020, as the requirement applies to full-time working years. If you cannot meet the 3-year-full-time requirement at EQE 2021 for the main exam, you may wish to consider to not yet sit the Pre-Exam in 2020 to prevent having a 2-year gap between the Pre-Exam and the main exam.

Note from the blog editor:
The above is only a few citations from the complete Notice. Refer to the complete Notice for all detail on the above topics, as well as on fees, examination centers, communications, etc as well as main exam information (OJ 2018, A108)

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