G1/09 - do you need to know it for the exam?

The short answer is: yes.
The syllabus states that you need to know the law as of 31/12/2010 and EQE 2011 will certainly have a number of questions on divisionals.
Your answer to a simple question like: "you anticipate a refusal in oral proceedings next week - what is the last possible moment to file a divisional?" may now be completely different. (see here for the answer)

I would also say that this is essential knowledge for daily life.

Also the legal basis for being able to file up to (but not including) the mention of the grant is no longer OJ 2002, 112 or GL A-IV, 1.1.1. It has now become Art.67(4), G1/09.

Serbia = newest EPC state

Always important on the EQE are the EPC member states. For any filings on or after 1 Oct 2010, Serbia will be designated. For filings < 1 Oct 2010, Serbia can only be approached via the extension system from an EP filing. More details here

More info on EPO being a SISA

From 1/7/2010, the EPO will offer Supplementary International Searches. This will almost certainly be in the D paper.
An overview of the information is here

Some details of procedures are found in the rest of the May OJ EPO here

The Applicants Guide (WIPO) has been updated with a SIS entry for the EPO here

Final version Guidelines AND potential EQE 2011 Exam topics

The provisional version of the Guidelines from December has now been finalized.
It is available here.

This should be the version that you will use for EQE 2011 – it is unlikely they will update it again this year.

The notice below gives the changes compared to the last finalized version of April 2009.
We have not yet identified any changes since the provisional version of December.

However, as the exam committee likes to ask questions on things that have changed, you can consider this list as an overview of potential exam topics.

Did any of this help ?

Please let me know if any of the posts helped you. Also if anything was wrong or misleading.
Of course, you may want to wait for the results in August ;-)

Enjoy the summer.

Opinion on DI and DII - EQE 2010

I am not involved with the Exam Committee, so I have no inside information.

I always do the D exam in the office as soon as possible after the exam, under exam conditions - books on paper, exam timing etc. This gives me a feeling for the difficulty and any unclear parts of the papers.

When the Compendium answers are published in August, I can check my attempt to see how close I would have been. I aim to do each paper in less than official time to approach the stress felt by candidates.
Click below to see my impressions - comments are welcome

Potential exam questions EQE 2010 - from OJEPO and PCT NL

I get asked many times what I think will be on the D exam. Most of the questions and issues will be based upon the core of the EPC, which changes little.
However, they also like to ask questions based on things that have been published and changed “recently”.