Thursday, December 03, 2020 Information on the schedule for the EQE 2021 examination papers - Pre-Exam

 "Information on the schedule for the EQE 2021 examination papers" has been published in the EQE website yesterday at the end of the day.

It indicates that:

"The EQE 2021 exam schedule is now available. Candidates are advised that the document may be subject to minor changes as testing continues.

The EQE 2021 will take place online using LockDown Browser. On examination days, candidates are advised to log on to the online examination system's internet platform at least 20 minutes before the start of the relevant paper.

Information on how to register and log on to the online examination system will be communicated in due course.

The pre-examination and both papers C and D will be split into parts. This means that candidates will not be free to allocate their time as they see fit across the different parts of the papers. To compensate for this restriction, the total duration of the relevant papers has been extended. Once the time allowed for a part has elapsed, it will not be possible to go back to that part.

 

Pre-examination - 1 March 2021

The pre-examination will have the same syllabus and character as before, but it will be split into four parts. Each part must be completed before the start of the next break, with the next set of questions only becoming available after the break. The pre-examination lasts four hours and forty minutes. [Note from the editor: that is the time available to work on the paper - you get 10 minutes extra per part; the total duration of paper and intermediate breaks from beginning to end is much longer]

Candidates will be allowed to print the prior-art documents for the claim analysis parts before the start of the appropriate part. The documents allowed for printing will be made available during the break preceding the relevant claim analysis part."

The details for each of the Pre-Exam (and main exam papers) are given in the document.

Wednesday, December 02, 2020 Planning to sit Pre-Exam 2022: Compulsory registration prior to first-time enrolment!!

Candidates wishing to enrol for the pre-examination 2022 for the first time must have completed a total period as defined in Article 11(2)(a) REE of at least two years by 1 March 2022.

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.

With their application, candidates declare that the information they have provided is true and accurate and notably that they will have completed the required period of professional activity by the date of the examination.

Be reminded that candidates must register once they have commenced their professional training (Article 11(2) REE; Rule 28 IPREE).

Enrolment to the pre-examination 2022 will only be possible for candidates who have registered by 15 January 2021 at the latest (see Notice of the Examination Secretariat OJ EPO 2018, A99).

Candidates who have already been admitted to the EQE (pre- or main examination) are already registered and therefore do not need to register again even if they have not yet sat an examination paper.

Registration can be done via https://www.epo.org/learning/eqe/registration.html.

Enrolment for EQE 2022 is expected to be possible as of early February 2021.

Tuesday, November 10, 2020 Updates to L-book and P-book (edition June 2020, for EQE 2021)

   

We have prepared documents with updates to the EQE 2021 editions (published in June 2020) of our Q&A books:

• ‘Basic legal Questions for Pre-Exam and  Paper D -book (“L-book”)
• ‘Pre-Exam Book - Cases/ Exams (“P-book”)

These books are updated in view of:

• Publications in OJ EPO after the Book was printed (OJ June 2020 – 31 Oct 2020);
• Publications in PCT Newsletter after the Book was printed (PCT NL June 2020 – 31 Oct 2020);
• Corrections to the questions and answers.

We thank all who provided any comments and all candidates who participated in our legal training courses, as well as those that gave feedback on our material via email, for useful feedback. Any further comments are highly appreciated (via email to TRAINING at deltapatents.com).

The latest version of these update document are available on our website (on https://www.deltapatents.com/webshop.html - L, P)

Also refer to our compilations of key parts of the EQE syllabus as in force on 31 October 2020 for EQE 2021, on https://www.deltapatents.com/course-links.html: 

• EQE 2021 references - EQE 
• EQE 2021 references - EPC
• EQE 2021 references - EPO and PCT
• EQE 2021 references - PCT

Friday, July 10, 2020 D 3/19 - The term "must" in statement 4.1 of Pre-Exam 2019 leads to ambiguity.

Today, decision D 3/19 was published online (here).

The decision is reproduced below in its entirety, with emphasis added.

Statement 4.1 of Question 4 of Pre-Exam 2019 read:

The statement was also discussed at our Pre-Exam blog: is it TRUE in view of R.6(1) as the Examiner's report indicates, or FALSE as R.58 provides for a remedy such that there is no sanction of the translation is filed in the 2m period from notification of the R.58 invitation?

Also see similar (albeit slightly different) statements in Pre-Exam 2014, 8.2 ("Regarding EP-Z: the prescribed translation shall be filed within two months of filing EP-Z") and Pre-Exam 2017, 4.3 ("According to the provisions of the EPC, Adrienn must file the translation of the description within two months of filing of EP-A"); those statements also did not contain a sanction (see reason 2.1-2.2 below). Those statements had also been topic of discussion at our Pre-Exam blogs.

Friday, January 24, 2020 Calendars for Pre-Exam 2020 available

The calendars for Pre-Exam 2020 are available on the EQE website.

The set comprises the calendars of 2019 and 2020.

Please be reminded that you need to use the calendars provided with the exam paper when answering - that version may (as you can see in the ones made available now) not have all "real" EPO closure dates, in particular it may lack bridging days such as at the end of the year, as well as 6 January 2020 (Epiphany/Heilige Drei Könige, which used to be in the calendars).