Monday, February 23, 2015 Our (provisional) answers to the Legal Part of Pre-Exam 2015

Before checking your own answers with the provisional answers given below, please first check out on the blog post  First impressions of Pre-Exam 2015?  for general questions and general comments about Pre-Exam 2015 (click here for English, French, German version)!, and post your first impressions there. The Claims Analysis part is discussed in a separate blog post: Our (provisional) answers to the Claims Analysis Part of Pre-Exam 2015 

My provisional answers (not yet thoroughly reviewed; and subejct to any typos...) are:

Q.1:  T, F, T*, F**;
Q.2:  F, T, F, T;
Q.3:  F, T, F, T;
Q.4:  T, F, T, F;
Q.5:  F, T, F***, T****;
Q.6:  F, F, T, F;
Q.7: T, T, F, T;
Q.8: F, T, T, F;
Q.9: T, F, T, T;
Q.10: T, T*****, F, T.

Key legal basis and/or argumentation to the answers is given below. I will double-check the answers today (Tue Feb 24) with my colleague tutors in DeltaPatents. Some comments for now:

* /** Q.1: not really a nice question to start with: 1.3 and 1.4 may have taken quite some time.

* For 1.3, I originally answered False as I did not recognize that the "change of representation" from A to B implied a termination of the authorization of Mr.A. Oops... See the discussion below: thx guys! 

*** 5.3: a bit of a tricky question, but almost the same as 4.2 of Pre-Exam 2014: an easy mark?!

**** 5.4: OJ 2013, 156, example 5, item 22; "on" in the statement.

***** 10.2: who of you ever tried?

Any different opinions are welcome! Please post your opinions as comments to this blog, so everybody can from the discussion.  Comments are welcome in any official EPO language. 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 26-02-2014 23:59"), whereas using your real name or a pseudonym is more personal, more interesting and makes a more attractive conversation.

Friday, February 06, 2015 Count down: two weeks to the Pre-Exam

You now enter your final two weeks of Pre-Exam preparation. You will probably practice some old Pre-Exam papers to check your exam readiness and to feel confident.

When practicing using old paper, be aware of legal changes that may have an impact on the question and/or on the answer. DeltaPatents provides updated material, where questions and answers are updated to reflect the law as applicable at the coming Pre-Exam: if you use our P-book, last year's legal changes are all taken into account. If you however use the papers as on the EQE Compendium, the papers and the answers given on the Compendium website are exactly the exam papers and the answers reflecting the law that was applicable at earlier years.

There were many many changes in 2014 to the EPC as well as the PCT. They are documented in our book Basic Legal Questions for Pre-Exam and Paper D (edition May 2014) and the update to that book. Apart from the legal changes, also the Guidelines were updated per 1 November 2014 - it is this November 2014 edition that you need at the Pre-Exam 2015!

A series of changes since 1 April 2014 relates to the fee reductions for certain acts for applicants satisfying certain conditions, which effects Q.8 of the Pre-Exam 2014.

Here is our updated version of the question.

Pre-Exam 2014 - QUESTION 8  (updated)

  

Ms De Jong, a Dutch citizen resident in Berlin, filed on 4 February 2015 a European patent application EP-Z and a notice of opposition against European patent EP-Y. The mention of the grant of EP-Y was published on 24 June 2014. Both documents were filed in the Dutch language. Today is Monday 23 February 2015.

For each of the statements 8.1 – 8.4, indicate whether the statement is true or false:

8.1       Regarding EP-Y: the prescribed translation of the notice of opposition must be

filed at the latest within one month of filing of the notice of opposition.

8.2       Regarding EP-Z: the prescribed translation shall be filed within two months of

filing EP-Z.

8.3       Ms De Jong can be entitled to a reduction of the opposition fee.

8.4       Ms De Jong can be entitled to a reduction of the filing fee for EP-Z.

If you want to receive the answer to the question, please email us your answer and a brief explanation how you got to the answer, and we will send it to you a.s.a.p. Use email subject "My answer to Pre-Exam 2014 Q.8 on Pre-Exam Blog". My contact details are given here.

Good luck at the exam! 

And make sure to pass the Pre-Exam, so we can see you in one of our main exam courses, e.g., our 3-day D Methodology course that we give at various locations across Europe in autumn 2015 (English or German),  our subsequent 2-day Guided D course in December-January and/or our 4-day D Trail Run course in Eindhoven/Munich in January 2016 or one of our A, B or C Methodology and Guided Exam courses, or -if your legal knowledge was insufficient- an intensive 8-day Basic Legal course (3 blocks of 4 days EPC, 2 days substantive patent law and 2 days PCT), to which you can register via our website or using the registration forms in the brochures.