Want to sit Pre-Exam 2019? You need to register before 1 January 2018!!!

The Pre-Exam 2019 is more than 1 year away, but if you want to sit it, you will need to enrol in the April-May 2018 timeframe (no details have been published yet when enrolment opens and closes), and...
you need to register under Rule 28 IPREE with the Exam Secretariat at the latest by 1 January 2018!!!

Candidates who have not registered by this deadline will not be able to enrol for the pre-examination.

Registration is only possible online as described in OJ EPO 2017, A24. More detailed information can be found on the EQE website (www.epo.org/eqe).

Further information can be found in:

  • Notice from the Examination Secretariat for the European qualifying examination - Compulsory registration prior to first-time enrolment to the EQE - OJ EPO 2017, A78 (29.09.2017)
  • Notice from the Examination Secretariat for the European qualifying examination - Registration pursuant to Rule 28 of the Implementing provisions to the Regulation on the European qualifying examination, OJ EPO 2017, A24 (31.03.2017)
  • Decision of the Supervisory Board of 13 February 2017, link on EQE website

Update:
  • Deadline for compulsory registration prior to enrolment to Pre-examination 2019
  • Candidates must register once they have commenced their professional training (Article 11(2) REE). Enrolment to the pre-examination 2019 will only be open for candidates who have registered before the start of the enrolment period (enrolment from 3 April 2018 until 4 June 2018), thus by 2 April 2018 at the latest. Therefore, only duly registered candidates will be granted access to the enrolment portal for the pre-examination.
  • In addition, all supporting documents must be provided within 10 days after filing the request for registration. These documents must be complete and fully sufficient to substantiate the request.
  • Enrolment for the pre-examination 2019 will not be possible for candidates whose request for registration are still incomplete or where further consultation is required.
  • It is solely the responsibility of candidates to ensure the early and timely submission of such requests and all necessary documents. For this reason candidates are strongly advised to register immediately upon commencement of training activities.

Calendars for Pre-Exam 2018 available on EPO website

The calendars for the 2018 Pre-Examination have been made available by the Exam Secretariat on the Pre-Exam Compendium pages of the EPO website. Calendars are provided of 2017 and 2018. The format of the calendars and the table with EPO closure dates has remained unchanged.

The calendars can be found here.

Guidelines November 2017

A pre-publication of Guidelines for Examination November 2017 is available on the EPO website, as well as of the Guidelines for Examination at EPO as PCT authority.
The HTML-pages also contain a page with a list of changes (at the bottom of the left column)

The final version, available as of 1 November 2017, is however not the relevant version for EQE 2018 (Pre-Exam and Main Exam): per decision of the Supervisory Board of 29 September 2017, the relevant date for the applicable law and GL was changed from 31 December to 31 October (see here), such that the November 2016 version is the relevant version for EQE. Note that that version is partially overruled by legal changes (RFees 11, Rule 51(2), Rule 162, Rule 27, Rule 28 EPC) and case law (G 1/15 - partial priority).

Pre-Exam 2017: results

Earlier today, the Examiner's Report was published, and now also the results are out and available on the EQE website here.

884 candidates enrolled for the Pre-Exam 2017, out of which 860 also sat the paper (97%).
672 candidates passed, corresponding to 76% of all enrolled candidates and 78% of all candidates that sat the exam. Congratulations!
188 candidates failed, corresponding to 21% resp. 22%.
The pass rates are thus similar as in 2016 and 2015.


The pass rate is considerably lower for resitters:

  • 105 Pre-Exam 2016 candidates were resitting: 53 passed, 52 failed again
  • 54 Pre-Exam 2015 candidates were resitting: 21 passed, 33 failed again
  • 17 Pre-Exam 2014 candidates were resitting: 7 passed, 10 failed again
  • 36 candidates that sat Pre-Exam 2015 and 2016 were resitting: 17 passed, 19 failed again
  • 9 candidates that sat Pre-Exam 2014, 2015 and 2016 were resitting: 6 passed, 3 failed again
  • 5 candidates that sat Pre-Exam 2014 and 2015 but not 2016 were resitting: 1 passed, 4 failed again


Pre-Exam 2017: our answers to the toothbrush questions (claims analysis part)


The claims analysis part of the Pre-Exam 2017 (paper here: English, French and German) was about toothbrushes for human use.

The client's application described that a drawback of known toothbrushes is that the users need to be trained by dentists in order to achieve optimum dental plaque removal. Remaining dental plaque can give rise to dental caries, which is highly undesirable.
The invention is presented as being based on the surprising finding that the amount of dental plague removal can be increased by transmitting additional vibrations to the bristles of the toothbrush, generated by an electric vibrator inside the brush body, preferably in the handle together with a controller and a battery. The controller acts as a switching device for selectively supplying electric energy from the battery to an electrically operated element, because the controller connects and disconnects the vibrator from the battery.
Four embodiments are described and shown in four figures. In some embodiments, the controller uses a push button to turn on&off the vibrations; in other embodiments, a pressure sensor in the bristle zone is used. Some embodiments have a replaceable brush and a connection section to connect it to the handle. A LED can be incorporated to emphasize the technical character, which makes users think that the toothbrush has a higher cleaning efficiency.
The toothbrushes must have a length of less than 30 cm, or between 18 and 25 cm when having a replaceable brush head for ergonomic reasons.

Pre-Exam 2017: our answers to the legal part


As last year and unlike the years before, the legal part tested many non-standard topics. Some topics were quite unexpected, such as interlocutory revision, interruption and second medical indication - even though some of those statements were not that difficult, the unfamiliarity with the topic made them difficult. Well-prepared candidates having good knowledge and knowing their material well for fast look-up should have been able to answer most of the statements correctly. I expect that, as last year, many candidates needed 2 hours for the legal part and the full 4 hours for the whole paper.

Our provisional answers for the legal questions of the Pre-Exam 2017 (paper available here:  English, French and German):

Pre-Exam 2017: first impressions?


To all who sat the Pre-Exam today:
What are your first impressions to this year's Pre-Exam (pEnglish, French and German)? Any general or specific comments?
Were the legal topics well balanced?
Were the various aspects of claims analysis well balanced?
Was the balance between EPC and PCT right for you?
Which of the legal questions did you consider particularly difficult, and which relatively 'easy'?
How much time did you allocate for the legal questions, how much for the claims analysis part? Did you deviate from our original plan (for example, took more time for the legal questions than planned)?
Which part did you do first, the legal part or the claims analysis?
How many marks do you expect to have scored in the legal part, in the claims analysis, and for the whole paper?
What is your expectation of the pass rate and the average score?
How did this year's paper compare to the earlier pre-exams of 2012-2016 (assuming your practiced those) w.r.t. the pre-exam as a whole, w.r.t. the legal part and w.r.t. the claims analysis part? In particular, how did it compare to 2015 and 2016?

The paper and our answers
Copies of the paper will be provided on this blog as soon as we have received copies of the paper (English, French and German).

The core of our answers is given in two separate blog posts: one for the legal questions and another post for the claims analysis part.

We look forward to your comments!
Comments are welcome in any official EPO language, not just English. So, comments in German and French are also very welcome!

Please do not post your comments anonymously - it is allowed, but it makes responding more difficult and rather clumsy ("Dear Mr/Mrs/Ms Anonymous of 13-13-2017 13:13"), whereas using your real name or a pseudonym is more personal, more interesting and makes a more attractive conversation. You do not need to log in or make an account - it is OK to just put your (nick) name at the end of your post.

Please post your comments as to first impressions and general remarks to the Pre-Exam paper as a whole, and to the two parts (legal part and claims analysis) as whole parts to this blog.Please post substantial questions to specific legal questions to our post with our answers and claims analysis related questions to our post for that part

Thanks!

Note: the legal questions are discussed here, and claims analysis questions here.


(c) DeltaPatents 2017