EQE: 16 Mar 2023 - C Exam - no copy (sorry) and my comments

Thursday was the e-EQE C Exam (C-1: 0930-1230 CET - 180 mins and C-2: 1315-1615 CET - 180 mins). Sorry, I do not have a copy available (I was not a benchmarker), but please post any comments you have. The EPO normally makes official copies of the exams available in the compendium in the week after the EQE.

• I heard from many people that the subject matter was very mechanical.
• There were also a lot of complaints about the amount that you needed to read in C-1 before you could answer. Most people seemed to have needed 2 hours before they could start answering.
• In the afternoon, the experiences seem to have been reversed, with plenty of time available. But, according to the exam rules, it is not allowed to answer any of the morning questions in the afternoon.
• A common feeling is that the exam timing should have been C-1: 4 hrs and C-2 hrs.
• Having to read so much in C-1 is a severe disadvantage to non-native speakers.
• I also don't understand why the C exam is not split evenly into 2 parts, either as 2 mini cases or two sets of associated claims with different prior art. The committee has had 2 years to do this - the WISEflow restrictions are still the same as in 2021. There is no excuse for this. Again, there will be many "fit-to-practice" candidates having to retake the C-exam in 2024.
• I have heard a rumor that candidates who seem to improve their understanding of the case during the afternoon are suspected of cheating by discussing part 1 with someone else. There is also an innocent explanation - candidates are so overwhelmed in C-1 that they start reading as soon as they have printed out C-2. Or some of them reread C-1 in the lunch break. This is not forbidden by the rules - it is just a risk because they do not know how relevant the C-1 information will be in C-2. But for 2021, 2022, and 2023 it has been very relevant. There is a very simple way to fix this - split the exam properly!
• And again, it seems that all the discussions about changing the exam syllabus are also completely pointless because the committees will just make the exams that they want to. I have now changed my opinion to be in favour of the multiple-choice only option originally proposed by the EPO.
• It is unacceptable that good, well-prepared candidates are now spending several years trying to pass these 4 exams due to the unpredictable technical problems and due to the unexpected exam contents. 
• And non-native speakers continue to be punished. They do not expect any favours, but they should be treated fairly and they should able to adequately prepare based on previous exams.

EQE: 14 Mar 2023 - B Exam - no copy (sorry) and my comments

Tuesday was the e-EQE B Exam (0930-1300 CET - 210 mins). Sorry, I do not have a copy available (I was not a benchmarker), but please post any comments you have. The EPO normally makes official copies of the exams available in the compendium in the week after the EQE.

I heard from many people that it was a lot of subject-matter to get through, similar to the old exams where you had to figure out the amendments yourself. If you need too much time to decide on your amendments on B, it becomes very difficult to pass because most of the marks are for argumentation (support, novelty, inventive step).

• The problems in B are made worse by the difficulties in WISEflow of comparing on-screen claims as filed with the description as filed, and comparing on--screen amendments with the claims/application as filed.
• And the problems in current B exams are made even worse by the very high time pressure. When the PE was introduced, the B-exam was reduced in 2013 by 30 minutes by providing a claim set from the client. This can only save time if it is almost exactly the direction to go in. The standard advice from tutors used to be (in 2013 - 2019) was not to think too much and just follow this direction, clearing up clarity and extension issues, and writing out the argumentation.
• Since 2021, the B committee has gone back (unannounced) to the old-style (< 2013) of B-exam, requiring a more thorough interpretation often deviating from the clients proposal, but without giving the 30 minutes back. So, more technical understanding is needed to figure out the amendments, but you have no time to think, and definitely no time to correct your answer. You have one-shot to pass.

The basic principle of A and B as negative mark exams is a fundamentally flawed principle, which can lead to an enhanced loss of marks. The Disciplinary Board has also commented on this. You start with 100 marks, and lose marks for every mistake. That means that they have to anticipate all expected mistakes during exam drafting, and either added additional comments in the exam to point you away from them, or provide a route to keep getting marks after making mistakes. Unfortunately, with the combined technology exams, it is even more difficult to predict what 1000 candidates will do. What you are often missing with an unexpected solution are similar features in the prior art for the novelty & inventive step defence, and you are often missing a clear technical effect associated with your distinguishing features.

• Because of the time pressure, there is no time to rewrite your answer or to change your mind. The only guidance you have is that if you find the supporting words / phrases for amendments, and you have a technical effect, then you are probably on the right path. 

EQE: 9 Mar 2023 - A Exam - no copy (sorry) and my comments

Updated 14 Mar 2023

Thursday was the e-EQE A Exam (0930-1330 CET - 240 mins). Sorry, I do not have a copy available (I was not a benchmarker), but please post any comments you have. The EPO normally makes official copies of the exams available in the compendium in the week after the EQE. 

• I heard from many people that it was very electromechanical, similar to the old exams when there were separate EM and CH exams.
• There is a clear trend emerging of alternating exams with either very CH cases and solutions or very EM cases and solutions. This pattern seems to be in both A and B, but offset to each other. It does not seem as if they are able to make the combined technologies approach work properly.
• De facto, we seem to have moved from a system pre 2017 where EM/CH specialties were tested each year to the current system where EM/CH specialities are only tested every 2 years.  It would be interesting to see how many candidates are now only passing A and B after 2 years. Unfortunately, the publicly available detailed statistics per candidate (anonomised) have been suppressed during the last few years, so it is not possible for any third party to evaluate this.
• Maybe they could announce in advance whether it will be an EM or CH flavour - that could save candidates from a lot of frustration.
• They either need to provide an exam that all competences really can pass or provide better guidance about how to prepare. I still believe that it is a better to have more generic AB exams, but we maybe have to admit that the current EQE system just cannot deliver it.
• It also means that it is pointless discussing theoretical changes to the exam syllabus if they will just produce basically the same exams in different pieces with different names.

The basic principle of A and B as negative mark exams is a fundamentally flawed principle, which can lead to an enhanced loss of marks. The Disciplinary Board has also commented on this. You start with 100 marks, and lose marks for every mistake. That means that they have to anticipate all expected mistakes during exam drafting, and either added additional comments in the exam to point you away from them, or provide a route to keep getting marks after making mistakes. Unfortunately, with the combined technology exams, it is even more difficult to predict what 1000 candidates will do. What you are often missing with an unexpected solution are similar features in the prior art for the novelty & inventive step defence, and you are often missing a clear technical effect associated with your distinguishing features.

• Because of the time pressure, there is no time to rewrite your answer or to change your mind. The only guidance you have is that if you find the supporting words / phrases for claims features, and you have a technical effect for your distinguishing features, then you are probably on the right path. 

EQE: 7 Mar 2023 - D Exam - copy to try yourself and my comments

See here: blog.ipappify.de/eqe-7-mar-2023-d-exam-copy-to-try-yourself/

Internet Resources & Calendars during EPAC 2022 & EQE 2023

During the exams, only LIMITED ONLINE ACCESS will be available. So, you will need to print references and CALENDARS yourself before the exam. WISEflow allows access via the Permitted Internet Resources menu to EPO Legal Texts (En / Ge / Fr) and PCT APPLICANT’s Guide (En / Fr) only.

We have made a set of Exam Calendars available, including the closing days from the EPO, as well as some guidance about using them and calculating time limits.

See IP.appify Blog post for more details.

Who can afford an in-person EQE ?

By DALL·E, OpenAI

The EPO makes Adminstrative Council documents public to increase transparency. Unfortunately, they do not have older documents. I have made CA/139/08 available here because it provides important background for the many changes made to the EQE during the last years. 

There are a lot of people arguing that we should go back to the in-person exam. But that can only happen if some organisation is willing to organise it and/or pay for the organisation. The EPC is silent about who should bear the costs for the EQE, so it has been a struggle between the EPO and the epi / national offices as the EQE has grown from tens of candidates candidates to a couple of thousand. The system is very dependent on the many people who kindly sacrifice their free time organising / making / marking exams. 

For example, the figures in 2007 were:
"All in all, the cost of the 2007 examination came to EUR 7 167 000.
Of this, EUR 2 681 000 (estimate based on EPO cost levels) was contributed through the working time of professional representatives made available free of charge and EUR 108 000 (estimate based on EPO cost levels) through kind support from national patent offices in the form of premises and staff.
Receipts from fees amounted to EUR 652 000.
The remaining costs totalling EUR 4 378 000 were borne by the EPO."

This was the main reason to introduce the Pre-exam - with the increasing number of resitters in the system, the EPO calculated that their costs would rise to 8 500 000 in 2018. 

Whether you want it or not, the EQE will change. I have no idea what the current online exams cost, but it must be a lot less than in-person, so it will stay online.
Longer exams do not work online, and there are many countries that have health and safety rules which oppose having to be present for 90 minutes without a bathroom break. So, they have to move to shorter exams.
Also, it is getting harder to find enough volunteers, so they have to move to exams that are less time-intensive to make and less time-intensive to mark. 

September 2022: PCT.App update is now live!

The only digital PCT reference that is future-proof, self-customisable, & self-printable. In English & German. Paper books and an EPC version are also available.

We have just completed our major update of PCT.App for the legal changes in July & August. Most of the changes relate to sequence listings, which is now much more integrated into PCT. We have also changed some core structures to improve the layout and to distribute legal provisions in a more logical way.

In the self-editable online version of our PCT commentary, all changes of the update are rolled-out automatically, while personal user annotations from before the update are retained and can be exported into a customized printable PDF offline version. As usual, we further published this September 2022 edition as standalone softcover books in English or German with same content. 

See the post on the IP.Appify blog for more details.

New e-EQE has major improvements

By DALL·E, OpenAI

The EPO and epi recently published their extensive proposals for the new e-EQE, including mock exams to get a better feel for the changes.

It will be a major improvement for candidates, but it will also depend on how the modules will be made.

IP.appify Blog: New e-EQE has major improvements

e-EQE2022: Main Exam - what to do after a pass or a fail

15-07-2022: added comments about translation errors.

14-07-22 - added note about split exams compensation.

13-07-22 - added "fit to practice" check during marking.
A big congratulations to all who passed at least at one exam. None of the exams are easy, and if you are unlucky, it is easy to miss something crucial or to misread a sentence.

The result totals and statistics are available here. The pass rate for B is higher than last year, and D is relatively high compared to previous years (not including D 2021 because of the global compensation for technical issues). 

Unfortunately, (since 2021) anonymized individual results are no longer made available, so we cannot calculate statistics or see the mark distributions per exam. Joeri Beetz has a nice website with extensive statistics for the older exams. We were told last year that this omission was due to a lack of capacity.

2021 "Pass rates" - candidates with 45 points or higher:

• Nr of candidates: Main Exam = 2780, A = 1905, B = 2005, C = 1852, D = 2003
• A  = 79%, B = 65%, C = 57%, D = 92% 
• Passed last exam in 2021: 1093 (= 53 % of all ME candidates)

2022 "Pass rates" - candidates with 45 points or higher:

• Nr of candidates: Main Exam = 1918, A = 886, B = 1158, C = 1400, D = 704
• A  = 73%, B = 84%, C = 61%, D = 71% 
• Passed last exam in 2022: 885 (= 46 % of all ME candidates)

The Examiners Reports for each exam are also available here. Unfortunately, the marking sheets are missing (they were included in 2021 and previous years). These are the same as each candidate receives, with a rough division of  available marks. I don't know why they are not included this year.

For each exam, the Examination Committees have selected Candidates' Answers in English, French and German who scored quite highly with an exam answer close to their desired solution. These are unedited, so they can contain mistakes. Unfortunately, the marking sheets for these candidates are still missing (they were also missing in 2021). These marking sheets were very useful for candidates trying to understand where they missed marks. We were told last year that this omission was due to a lack of capacity. 

Still to be published is the Survey report, summarising the answers provided immediately after the exam. It will appear here, at the bottom of the page. Hopefully, it will be back to it's pre-2020 extensive format. In 2021, it was merely a PR folder - we were told last year that this was due to a lack of capacity. 

In October (usually in week 42), there will be a meeting of Tutor's and the Examination Committees to directly discuss the exams of 2022, and to look ahead to EQE 2023. No definite date for the meeting is yet available. In 2021, it was online - no word yet if it will be back to an in-person gathering.

If you passed your last exam, double congratulations 🥇and welcome to the post-EQE world 💪. 

• For attorneys, request entry onto the list of representatives. 
• If you are a national of a non-EPC state and you wish to be on the list, you need to request an exemption under Art. 134(7). This involves extra administration - see the FAQ's. Preston Richard has made a template letter that you can use.
• Relax and look forward to developing other aspects of your career.
• Even though the epi has no formal requirement for permanent education, commit to keeping up your knowledge. You still need up-to-date knowledge to provide optimal services to your clients, especially of changes in EPO procedure:
• Subscribe to a blog that regularly discusses case law and legal changes, like the IP.appify blog
• Go through the yearly changes to the EPO guidelines and follow G decisions
• Use your legal knowledge more in your daily work (see if a colleague needs help with an office action or opposition, give a presentation to your office, check whether your office procedures meet "all due care", teach subjects to trainees, write a legal article).
• Attend or follow the EPO's education sessions related to Applying for a Patent, to Law and Practice, or for Patent Attorneys. 
• Become a tutor, or volunteer for an Examination Committee
• If you have added digital notes to EPC.app and PCT.app, they will be updated automatically each year.

Click on READ MORE > > for possible actions after a fail  

Indexed EPO-EPC Guidelines (Mar 22) & Unitary Patent now available to order (EN)

For the order links, see: fireballpatents.com/study-materials

The EPO-EPC Guidelines for Examination detail the procedure to be followed before the EPO. It explains how the EPO implements the EPC, and covers their standard approach when dealing with the direct EP and Euro-PCT applications. These documented practices are based on standard interpretations of the law, internal policies and established case law, and can be used to predict the most likely objections and outcomes in a particular case. 

EPO practices are continuously updated, and once per year, the Guidelines are updated to reflect recent OJEPO's, G-decisions, J-decisions and selected T decisions. These EPO-EPC Guidelines (Mar 22) are expected to be legally valid from 1 Mar 22 to 28 Feb 23. 

We have also included the EPO's Unitary Patent Guide (Apr 22), which outlines how to obtain an EU Unitary Patent. The Unitary Patent is not yet in force, but it is expected to commence in early 2023. 

Our Indexed version improves on the official digital versions by abbreviating index entries, grouping them at the front to allow quick scanning, using page numbers to speed up finding pages, indicating sections with significant changes in the last 3 years, and fully using the page size to give a better overview of paragraphs. Relevant legal citations & references are underlined, making them easier to spot.

This book is suitable as a desktop reference for everyday use by attorneys and administrators. This is the most used reference for real life cases. We have retained the original order and numbering of the sections, so it can also be used with any EPC legal reference, such as EPC.App. 

It is also suitable for anyone studying European Patent Law and exam candidates. Exam candidates need to learn how the Guidelines are organised, what they contain (i.e. mainly EPO procedures, some substantive law) and how to find sections quickly. 

For EQE candidates, the EPO-EPC Guidelines are needed for each exam, and are considered essential for Pre-Exam and Paper D. The Guidelines are not legal basis themselves, but most of the EPC legal questions can be answered using the contents. However, answers should always be supported by Articles and Rules citations. The Mar 22 version is the official version for EQE 2023 Main Exam & Pre-Exam. Note that the Unitary Patent is not yet tested at the EQE.

Three editions in English are available (all have 532 pages):

1. Portable A4 Edition - using thinner 50gr "bible paper" to reduce the thickness to 17mm and the weight to 825g.
2. Study A4 Edition - using thicker 80gr paper, which is more suitable for intensive tabbing, annotating and highlighting. It is 28mm thick and weighs 1375g.
3. Study Letter Edition - also using thicker paper, but made available through Amazon mainly for orders outside the EU (AU, CA, JP, UK, US). It is 31mm thick and weighs 1550g.

For more details, including the order links, and sample pages, see: fireballpatents.com/study-materials