Thursday, January 14, 2021 Answering the DII paper in the e-EQE platform

In an earlier post, I described my setup and answering DI questions in the e-EQE platform using the Mock 1 paper. Quite a few candidates also asked me to comment on answering DII. I gave some tips already in various comments to our blog on Mock 1: I expand on that in this blog.

I start by opening the DII paper (Assignment) in separate Tab, after having selected the English version.

Then I open the editor and add some basic headings to prepare (the structure for) my answer. 

• E.g., add a header such as "DII" or “Initial analysis” at the beginning for gathering some info and do some initial analysis of that is part of your methodology. 
• I also add a header “Advice (cross-licensing)” at the end where you can draw your final conclusions after having answered the last questions.

Before reading the whole paper,  I copy the questions from the paper into editor. 

I convert the copied  questions into headings (I use Header 2 and Header 3) for each sub-question, to prepare (the organization of) your answer.

By using the header formatting, you can see each header in the Table of Contents (ToC) in the right window, which allows an easy navigation during the rest of the session.

• Tip: Use headers at different levels to organize your answer, see e.g. Q.3

Then, I continue with our usual DII methodology:

Read paper to the end for fact finding, in the same way as I would do for a paper exam.

As part of that, I make my tools: timeline and checklists.

• As you cannot annotate the paper, and consulting the paper itself is very time you need some information takes too much time, a well annotated but concise timeline and good checklists are even more important with the e-EQE than with a paper EQE. However, there is substantially no difference in the tools and in filling them, nor in using them, as with a paper exam.
• Do the tools on paper, as you need them all the time: if they are on paper, you can keep them side-by-side when you are answering.
   
• Doing them on paper also allows to use A3-size for the timeline, as well as colors, arrows, …, as you may be used to do with the paper exam.
• Doing the timeline in the editor is probably not preferred; if you do, consider the use of the Tables formatting function. However, the amount of space is very limited and it may be a time consuming effort do format and reformat the table. We strongly recommend to do the timeline on paper.
• Also when doing the timeline on paper, the editor may be helpful to get a neat timeline in an efficient manner: You can consider to first sort all dates in the editor while scanning the paper for dates prior to the detailed reading; after you have a sorted list of dates, you can copy them on your timeline paper an then add all necessary info about the events.
• You can consider to make the checklists in the editor: if you use a heading, you can easily jump thereto and back if you use the ToC. However, paper versions may be more efficient to use – check how it works for you.
• If there seems to be a lot of detail for a specific fact in your timeline or checklists: summarize and note the paragraph number in your tool
• Unfortunately, you cannot annotate the pdf, so you cannot indicate in the exam paper itself which facts you used. If you consider annotation an essential tool, copy the DII paper into the editor and annotate it therein - See also in the DI post. 
• Refer to our methodology for details.

Then I answer the questions one-by-one...:

• …using the (paper) tools,
• …only occasionally converting back to the paper for details that is not present in my tools,
• ...according to our normal DII methodology, in the same way as I would do for a paper-based exam.

Tip: You can benefit from the editor by using the formatting options (headings at various levels; paragraphs, bullet lists, enumerate lists; boldface, italic, underline). We already recommended to use a clear structure and formatting for a handwritten answer in the paper exam; the technology facilitates it now in a more easy way:

• Use headings for every claim
• Use headings and/or short paragraphs, bullets and sub-bullets to structure your analysis in the various blocks (legal status, patentability, scope of protection)
• Use bullets and sub-bullets to indicate all the steps of your reasoning, and possible sub-steps.
• in the same way as for DI.
• For examples, refer to our model solutions and the examples in our methodology courses.

I answer every question under the appropriate heading in bulletlist-style, as I do when answering on paper. This automatically changes the fontsize to 11 and put the lines a but further apart than the original line spacing. 

The bulletlist format also allows to have a further indent, e.g., to have open sub-bullets for testing each requirements of a long legal provision such as priority or re-establishment.

I organize my bullets in groups (paragraphs), with a blank line in between, to reflect the various main ingredients of my argumentation. You may wish to add a short heading to each group (paragraph).

With the bulletlist-style, I can present my answer in clear and concise way. It also allows me to easily check whether I missed reasoning steps or legal basis. I use bulletlist-style for answering DI as well as DII.

A major advantage of using an editor rather than handwriting is than you can easy insert steps in your reasoning - you can easily insert a bullet or even a complete group (paragraph).

Be careful when using copy-paste-edit if you are discussing similar topics later in the paper: in contrast to a handwritten copying action, where are are aware of every word that you copy, you may easily overlook some of the parts that you will need to edit (other date, other prior art) and the result of a copy-paste-edit may have lost all its consistency! 

Good luck!

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Addition 15 January 2021:

The Table of Contents can be found in the right column where you initially see "Select Assignment": at the top of that column you see "Options", use the arrows besides it to get the menu and select ToC from the menu:

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