Pre-Exam 2024: deemed notification: you can use to use the current "10-day rule" or the new version of Rule 126(2)/127(2)

The Supervisory Board of the EQE issued a decision on "Notification and time limit calculation" dated 26 June 2023:

"Candidates sitting the EQE 2024 (pre-examination and main examination) can use as legal basis Rules 126, 127 and 131 EPC as in force on 31 October 2023 or Rules 126, 127 and 131 EPC as in force on 1 November 2023."

So, when calculating time limits that run from the (fictitious) date of notification of a document, you are free to use:

  • either the current "10-day rule" for deemed notification (or true date of receipt if received later) according to current Rule 126(2)/127(2) (as in force until 31/10/2023) 

  • or the new PCT-like version (as in force from 1/11/2023) with deemed notification on date of dispatch/date of the document and a compensation for receipt later than 7 days (OJ 2022, A101, article 1(10)-(12); OJ 2022, A114, section IV; and OJ 2023, A29; also Guidelines E-II, 2.3 and 2.4).

This implies that the correct (True or False) answer will not depend on the version of the Rule used when the Pre-Exam answers.

Our Q&A book "Basic Legal Questions for Pre-Exam and Paper D" gives time limit calculations for both versions of R.126(2)/127(2) for all questions involving time limits calculated from he notification of a document.

decision on "Notification and time limit calculation" dated 26 June 2023:
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Pre-Exam 2023 results and Examiner's Report are finally out! - [Update 24 May:] as well as corrected decisions

The results for Pre-Exam 2023 came out yesterday afternoon, 10 May, finally, in MyEQE.

Congratulations to all that passed!

The Examiner's Report for Pre-Exam 2023 was published "already earlier" this Monday, 8 May (here).

Surprisingly only two statements were neutralized: 5.3 (needed a 2024 calendar) and 16.3 (in our version 16.1).

Statement 14.4 in part 3, for which we gave arguments for T (official answer) as well as for F, was not neutralized.

The statements in part 4 relying on the interpretation of "water-based solvent" being "just water" (and hence direct and unambiguous disclosures of %w/w of water) or "a solvent having a base of / based on water also including something more" (and hence no such direct and unambiguous disclosure og “water only”) were not neutralized - see 17.4, 18.3 and 20.1.


Please feel invited to post your comments (using your name or a nick name, not anonymously) to the respective parts of our Pre-Exam 2023 blogs:

Statistics have not yet been made available but the EQE secretariat – they are usually published together with the statistics for the main exam papers.


Update 11 July 2023: We were just informed by another tutor that the Examiner's Report for the Pre-Exam on the EQE website has been replaced by a new one (without that being easily spotted as its carries no date or version number, as as there was no mention on the website that it was updated). The original one had errors with dates in one of the legal questions, and was in English only. The new one is in all three languages. 


Update 24 May 2023:

Today, 24 May, candidates received the following email from the EQE secretariat:


“Subject: EQE 2023 Pre-examination - Communication from the Examination Board

Dear candidate,

We would like to inform you that after the release of the pre-examination results on 10 May 2023, we have encountered some discrepancies between the results communicated and what was to be expected in view of the Examiners’ Report. Upon conducting a thorough investigation, we have successfully identified the source of the issue, which is of a technical nature. Please be informed that the problem has been solved.

As a consequence, the results have been recalculated and must be re-issued. Therefore, the decision of the Examination Board concerning your result of the pre-examination 2023 communicated to you on 10 May 2023 is hereby revoked. A new decision based on the correct result is now available in myEQE.

Best regards / Mit freundlichen Grüßen / Sincères salutations

The Examination Secretariat
on behalf of the Examination Board”

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Pre-Exam 2024: Enrolment to the exam open until 15 May 2023

If you plan to sit the Pre-Exam 2024, be aware that enrolment has opened on 1 February 2023 and that the enrolment deadline is 15 May 2023.

Note that for a first time enrolment to the pre-examination candidates must already have registered (deadline for registration was 15 January 2023 - see the EQE registration webpage and our earlier blog post). Candidates who have previously been admitted to the pre-examination are already registered.

Please refer to the EQE enrolment webpage and the document "Enrolment process and fees for the EQE 2024" dd 27 January 2023 for details.


DeltaPatents Course Offer

Please refer to our webpage for our course offer for Pre-Exam 2024: here. In particular:

  • Pre-Exam Integrated course (13 x full-day classroom session): see here.
  • Pre-Exam Distance Learning (13 x 1,5-2 hour online sessions): see here
Please refer to our webshop for our Q&A books and reference books for the Pre-Exam:
  • "Basic Legal Questions for Pre-Exam and Main Exam" (L-book): here.
  • "Pre-Exam book: Cases and Exams" (P-book): here.
  • "References to the European Patent Convention" by Jelle Hoekstra: here.
  • "Topic-Related Index to the EPC and PCT" by Roel van Woudenberg and Cees Mulder: here.
    • A reduction applies when the latter book is bought together with "The Cross-Referenced Patent Cooperation Treaty" by Cees Mulder: here.

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ChatGTP-4's attempt at parts 3 & 4 of the Pre-Exam 2023

We also let ChatGPT provide answers to parts 3 & 4 of the Pre-Exam.

Some practical difficulties were that only plain text could be entered, which means that in part 3, the figures couldn't be provided, and that the underlining when indicating amendments was not present.

If one would consider our answers (see seperate posts, which are not necessarily correct!!) as the intended solution and applied the Pre-Exam's marking scheme (all correct: 5 points, 1 wrong: 3 points, etc), ChatGTP achieved 16/50 points which is well below the required passing grade of 35 (normalized from 70 for the entire exam to 35 for parts 3 & 4) and rather a score associated with mere guessing.

Generally speaking, ChatGPT seems to be able to answer basic novelty and scope questions reasonably well but fails at more specific topics such as ranges. Also, ChatGPT appearantly disagrees with the EPO's relatively strict approach to Art. 123(2) and considers most of the amendments as supported. Perhaps this reveals ChatGTP's US-origin?

See below for ChatGPT's answers and short reasoning (red marked where ChatGPT's answer deviated from ours):

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ChatGTP-4 finds the pre-exam legal part quite challenging.

From the ChatGTP-4 paper, we understand that its ability to pass exams has been greatly increased. For example, "on a simulated bar exam, GPT-4 achieves a score that falls in the top 10% of test takers. This contrasts with GPT-3.5, which scores in the bottom 10%.", see [1]. Naturally, we were curious to see how the AI would do on the EQE. The pre-exam legal part seems to be the most accessible for an AI, so this is the part we tried. 

We did two runs, one with a short prompt, and one with a long prompt. Both prompts explain the exam's requirements and ask for step-by-step reasoning. The long prompt also contains a question from last year's exam with an example of the required step-by-step legal reasoning. The prompt had to be very clear the program always needs to answer True or False, otherwise you get a lot of answers explaining why the available information is insufficient to make a decision. 

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Pre-Exam 2023 (part 4): erasable inks - our answers

The second claims part was about erasable inks.

“This invention provides erasable inks that provide good writing performance when used in writing instruments such as pens. The erasable inks are water-based inks that have a short "waiting time", i.e. inks that can be erased soon after they are applied on a surface made, for instance, of paper. Because the water-based inks are based on using water as a solvent rather than on using other solvents, the erasable inks of the invention are relatively non-toxic and odour-free.” [002] of the description of the client’s application)

Our answers to this second claims analysis part are given below. We have numbered the questions and statements for easy reference in the discussion.

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Pre-Exam 2023 (part 3): cleaning utensils - our answers

The first claims part was about cleaning utensils, in particular cleaning cloths.

Our answers to this first claims analysis part are given below. We have numbered the questions and statements for easy reference in the discussion.

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