Friday, January 10, 2014 Our FREE printable versions of the PCT Applicants Guide - available now for EQE2014

Every year, the WIPO provides a printable version of the Applicants Guide so that EQE candidates can take this information to the exam. Unfortunately, at 1800 pages, it adds considerably to the reference materials that most D candidates will bring with them and much of it is irrelevant for the EQE. In addition, the WIPO provides convenient overviews on their website which are not included in this official WIPO version.

Since 2007, I have produced this shortened version to lighten the load (and to save a few trees) – I leave out most of the national chapters, and concentrate on the states around which the EQE is based: the EPC countries, the EPO and the most used patent routes. Useful overviews have also been included, as well as additional information from the WIPO and EPO websites.

Unfortunately, the new layout of the WIPO web site has meant that some of the overviews now take up more pages. The current version is 820 pages, split into 3 parts. When printed double-sided, with 2 pages on each side of an A4, it will just fit into a 3.5cm binder.

New this year:

• Coverage of the top 20 DO/EO’s (increased from the top 12)
• Coverage of the top 15 RO’s (increased from the top 13)
• Some more details about the states not included (Part II – page 6 and Part III – page 12)
• Some explanation about reading the lists of states (Part II – page 4 and Part III – page 10)
• Addition of the Frequently-Asked-Questions about the America Invents Act (Part I – page 81)
• An additional overview of the EPO fees for PCT and Euro-PCT applications (Part III – page 153)
• An extra explanation and the list of states entitled to 75% fee reduction for the EPO as ISA or IPEA (Part III – page 158)

Part I - General (overviews)
Part II - International Phase
Part III - National Phase

Good luck at the exam

Friday, December 20, 2013 Updates to Basic Legal Questions Book (edition Aug 2013) for EQE2014 available

A document with updates to the ‘Basic legal Questions for Pre-Exam and  Paper D’ book (edition August 2013, EQE 2014) is available from our website, http://www.deltapatents.com/en/ip_courses/eqe_training/training_material/ (left column).

Updates to the Study Guide and Answers to the questions are given to reflect the EPC and PCT as applicable on 31 December 2013 for EQE2014, in view of especially:

• publications in OJ EPO after the Book was printed (August 2013);
• publications in PCT Newsletter after the Book was printed.

Also, a few corrections to some of the answers were made.

  

Tuesday, November 05, 2013 Tutors' Report now available about the EQE 2013 papers (and some things to expect in 2014)

Every year, tutors from DeltaPatents, CEIPI, epi etc meet with the EQE committees to discuss the EQE 2013 papers, and to get a sense of any changes or improvements we can expect in 2014. 

 

The report is available on the EQE Forum:

http://www.eqe-online.org/forum/showthread.php?t=10137

It will also be published in the December edition of epi information.

Please feel free to forward it to any fellow candidates for 2014.

Note that the comments on the EQE2013 and on the expected EQE2014 papers are combined, because the Committees more or less indicated that they will continue in this way. So it would be better to only read everything after doing the 2013 papers.

The most important issue for 2014 that you need to know now is the change for the Pre-Exam passing grade from 50 to 70 points.

Thursday, October 10, 2013 Major change to Pre-Exam marking for EQE 2014

The Supervisory Board has just published an important decision - starting in 2014, the passing grade will be for 70 points instead of 50
http://documents.epo.org/projects/babylon/eponot.nsf/0/2A262D0CB6D7C559C1257BFF00516F0F/$FILE/Decision_Supervisory_Board_10_2013_en.pdf

If 70 had been needed at the last pre-Exam, then the pass rate would have dropped from 99.6% to 88.5%. In other words, of the 643 candidates, the number of failures would have increased from 2 to 74.

As this is your gateway to the Main Exam, and it is only given once a year, this means that you really have to prepare for it and do the exam carefully.

Friday, March 22, 2013 Pre-Exam 2013 - The official answers

Here you can find the official answers and the Examiner's report: Compendium Pre-Exam

The answers are:
1:  T, F, F, F;
2:  T, T, F, F;
3:  T, F, F, T;
4:  F, T, T, F;
5:  T, T, F, T;
6:  F, T, F, F;
7:  F, T, T, F;
8:  F, F, F, T;
9:  T, F, T, F;
10: F, F, T, F;
11: T, T, T, F;
12: F, F, T, F;
13: T, T, F, F;
14: T, F, T, T;
15: T, T, T, T;
16: F, T, F, F;
17: T, F, F, T;
18: T, T, F, T;
19: F, T, T, F;
20: F, F, F, T.

Friday, March 22, 2013 Pre-Exam 2013 Statistics

22 March 2013: the results are  in on   http://www.epo.org/learning-events/eqe/statistics.html

Some figures:
- Participants:  643 (99.7%)
- Passes:        641
- Fails:               2
- Average:         81 marks
- Median:          82 marks
No participant scored full marks.

Here's how the marks are distributed:

How does this compare to last year's result:
- Participants:  390

- Passes:        386 (98.7%)

- Fails:               5

- Average:         84 marks

- Median:          87 marks
Four participants made not error at all.

Some conclusions: quite a few more participants, marks are marginally down, but the extremely high pass rate is even higher. It looks like an exam you cannot fail.

Any comments?

Wednesday, March 20, 2013 Pre-exam 2013: results on 22 March 2013

The EPO has announced that the Pre-exam results will already be available on 22 March 2013.
This is much earlier than last year and will enable candidates to start preparing early on for the main exam.
Great news.

Here is the official notification:

The results of the pre-examination of the European qualifying examination 2013 should be available on the EPO website as of 22 March 2013 and will remain on-line until 02 September 2013 under the following link:  http://www.epo.org/learning-events/eqe/statistics.html

You will be able to find your results by searching in the list for your EQE registration number (EQEReg).

Dispatch of the result letters is foreseen for 5 April 2013. They will be sent by registered mail. If you are not present upon delivery, please collect the letter at your post office before it is returned to the Examination Secretariat.