Pre-Exam 2024 Examiner's Report is out!
The Examiner's Report for Pre-Exam 2024 has just been published (Compendium)!
Six (!) individual statements were neutralized, corresponding to 11 marks (numbering according to sequence in Examiners' Report):
- 7.2 EP-M1-A1 forms part of the state of the art against the subject-matter of claim 1 of EP-M2 under Article 54(3) EPC
- 18.3 The subject-matter of claim I.7 is not novel over D2
- 19.2 For the following statement, assume that D1 is regarded as the closest prior art to the subject-matter of claim I.3: A valid argument that the subject-matter of claim I.3 involves an inventive step over D1 is that there is no hint in any one of documents D1, D2 and D3 that Product X has an antiviral effect.
- 19.3 The subject-matter of claim I.6 is novel over D1.
- 19.4 The difference of the subject-matter of claim I.8 over D3 as closest prior art may be regarded as not providing a technical effect.
- 20.3 The subject-matter of claim II.10 complies with the requirements of Article 123(2) EPC.
Update 10 April 2024: I have been informed by several candidates that the results are now also out! Congratulations to all that passed!
Please feel invited to post your comments (using your name, initials or a nick name, not anonymously) to the respective parts of our Pre-Exam 2024 blogs, to which I have added the reasoning given in the Examiner's Report for the neutralizations:
- https://pre-exam.blogspot.com/2024/03/pre-exam-2024-first-impressions.html
- https://pre-exam.blogspot.com/2024/03/pre-exam-2024-our-answers-to-legal.html
- https://pre-exam.blogspot.com/2024/03/pre-exam-2024-our-answers-to-claims.html
Statistics have not yet been made available but the EQE secretariat – they are usually published together with the statistics for the main exam papers. The large number of neutralizations may have compensated for the higher complexity of parts 3 and 4 when compared to 2019-2023, so that the pass rate is probably in the 85-90% range.
Update 5 Aug 2024: the Statistics were published in the middle of July: see here: 665 candidates enrolled to the exam - 584 (88%) passed and 81 (12%) failed or did not show up.
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16.4 is "FRUE" citing different rule though))
ReplyDeleteFRUE clearly means FALSE, because the statement is not neutralized. Difficult typo to make...
DeleteI agree, see comment in the claims analysis blog.
DeleteI just went into the MyEQE area and my result document is there although they haven't sent out the email yet. Based on my score, 16.4 is indeed FALSE. Good luck to everyone !
DeleteThe Compendium is also corrected - no longer says "FRUE" but "FALSE"
DeleteThanks Lily, I had not yet noted that, as there is no indication on the Compendium page itself, not in the Examiner's Report (e.g., no version number or date), nor by the name of file (still ExRep_PreEx_2024.pdf) that the Examiner's Report was updated/replaced by a new version.
DeleteIt seems that the results letters are not yet available in MyEQE. Usually, they come on the same day as the Examiner's Report, or a bit earlier. At one occasion, the results came one day after the Examiner's Report. So although we cannot see it in a crystal ball, it seems reasonable to expect that the results will come later today, tomorrow or at least within this week (unless some technical issue prevents issuing them).
ReplyDeleteWaiting anxiously for the official result... I have checked my score and passed, but since the questions are all mixed up and self-grading involved flipping back and forth between tabs it will feel much better to have the official score black-on-white.
DeleteResults are out! Thanks for your support Roel!
ReplyDeleteYes, thank you so much Roel !
ReplyDeletePassed! Thank you Roel.
ReplyDeleteThank you for the support preparing for the exam Roel. I look forward to the paper D course :)
ReplyDeleteHi Roel, I also got the official letter from the EPO, with good news. Thanks.
ReplyDeleteSo, anyone who fails PE 2024 can still take the old ABCD exams in 2025? And these will be compensated in the new system starting in 2026?. So, anyone who fails PE2024 should at least prepare and enrol for D 2025?
ReplyDeleteNo, for ABCD 2025 you must have passed the Pre-Exam, as the old REE/IPREE still applies (Art. 27(2)(a) New REE) and the New REE/IPREE give no exception for main 2025.
DeleteHowever, for ABCD 2026 there is no such need in view of the exception in Article 25(6) New REE (provides you satisfy the 2 yr professional activity requirement at EQE 2025 and the 3-year requirement at EQE 2026). This applies also if you sat but failed the Pre-Exam in 2024.
(https://www.epo.org/en/legal/official-journal/2024/etc/se3/p1.html)
See also our earlier blog post https://eqe-deltapatents.blogspot.com/2024/03/information-on-enrolment-for-b-c-and-d.html
See also "Navigating the EQE format changes" on the epi website:
Deletehttps://patentepi.org/en/epi-students/qualifying-as-a-european-patent-attorney/eqe-format-change.html
And the Notice from the EQE secretariat on the EQE website:
Deletehttps://link.epo.org/elearning/Notice_ES_2025_2026_EN :
"11 March 2024
Notice from the Examination Secretariat – Information on the enrolment for the EQEs 2025 and 2026
Requirements for sitting main examination papers A, B, C or D
In 2025, papers A, B, C, D will be offered, governed by the REE of 2009 and corresponding IPREE. This follows from Article 27(2)(a) REE 2025 in conjunction with Article 11(7) REE 2009. This means that passing the pre-examination is and remains a precondition for taking the main examination papers A, B, C, or D in 2025.
For candidates who did not pass the pre-examination, there is no opportunity to sit or re-sit the pre-examination in 2025 (Article 25(6) REE 2025).
These candidates may
- sit the examination under the REE 2025 i.e., starting with the paper F in 2025,
or
- sit the one or more main examination papers (A, B, C, D) in 2026 since no preexamination will be required (Articles 25(6) and 27(2)(b) REE 2025)."
BEWARE: if you failed the Pre-Exam and decide to enrol to the Foundation paper F in 2025, you can NOT sit A-B-C-D in 2026 but must stay in the New EQE system and hence continue with M1-M2 in 2026 (or later) and M3-M4 in 2027 (or later).
DeleteSo, if you failed the Pre-Exam this year and want to take one or more of A-B-C-D in 2026, you shall not sit any exam in 2025! -- but it is much recommended to prepare as if there is another Pre-Exam as immediately going to D1 level will be a too big step.
See Art.25(7) New EQE: "Once candidates have enrolled for a paper under this Regulation, they can no longer enrol for a paper under the Regulation of 2009."
Congrats to all that passed!
ReplyDeleteThanks for keeping these blogs alive Roel and for the help preparing the exam :)
ReplyDeleteThank you for keeping the blog, the discussions of past exams (and the P book) have been really helpful to prepare.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if someone has failed or not. I supposed to fail since I checked my answer sheet but somehow I passed with 70. Now I am wondering maybe they let everyone pass since it was the last pre-exam. Any idea?
ReplyDeleteDid you mark your answers in German? I was still wondering if they did anything to compensate for the German claims Part 2 containing passages from 2023 pre-exam.
Deleteno Lily all was in English
DeleteHmm, okay, very interesting. Congratulations on passing ! I can't really imagine it was a mistake. As Roel mentioned in one of the earlier posts, we will get to see general statistics of the exam, I believe Roel said when the main exam results come out. So we will see if everyone passed as per your question. Were you very close to passing? Like a score at least close to 70?
DeleteThere is no possibility in the REE/IPREE and the Instructions to the candidates/marking scheme to let candidates pass that did not score 70 marks or more.
DeleteCalculating your own marks is tricky, as the questions (legal part) and statements (all questions, legal and claims) are presented in randomized order to all candidates. So, your sequence is likely different from that in the Examiner's Report. As some statements are very similar, one may easily compare ones own answer to a statement with that to a different statement...
DeleteDue to the neutralization of 6 statements, your actual score may be more than that calculated based on our answers. But the score that you calculate from your answer with that in the Examiner's Report must be the same as that in your results letter - if there really is a difference, something is wrong.
DeleteSo for "7.2 EP-M1-A1 forms part of the state of the art against the subject-matter of claim 1 of EP-M2 under Article 54(3) EPC" - is partial priority just too complex for the Exam Committee to make a valid yes/no question? Or was it a matter of a typo / translation error / software issue that it was neutralized?
ReplyDeleteThe wording of the arguments in the Examiner's Report suggest that they meant to add "in its entirety" to the statement...
DeleteFurther, see the blog on the legal part and the comments thereto for a detailed discussion on 7.2 (7.1 in the blog version) and 7.3 (also 7.3 in the blog version).
Somewhat surprisingly, the Examiner's Report does not comment on the use of "-A1" in the EP-M1-A1 acronym.
Hello, could someone explain how this neutralization works in detail, and what is now total number of points and number of points needed to pass. It was mentioned that 11 points are neutralized, does it mean that 89 is new total? Many thanks
ReplyDeleteTake the marking scheme from
Deletehttps://link.epo.org/elearning/Notice_MarkingScheme_Pre_asof2024_EN
together with Examiner’s report from
https://link.epo.org/elearning/EQE_2024_examiner_report_PreEx_EN
Can I appeal?
ReplyDeleteRefer to Art. 24 REE and the blog post in right column (https://pre-exam.blogspot.com/2022/02/on-interpretation-of-pre-exam-questions.html)
DeleteAn appeal in view of statement 12.4 has been successful:
ReplyDeleteSee https://www.epo.org/en/boards-of-appeal/decisions/d240002eu1
Incredible insights! You have a knack for breaking down complex topics. Looking forward to your future posts!
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