Tuesday, July 19, 2016 D 2016 - distribution of the scores

This is a histogram showing the distribution of all the D scores of all candidates in 2016. This scoring 0 are people who regsitered, but did not show up.

The dips at 43-44 and 48-49 are due to candidates who originally scored in that range being re-evaluated to see if the Examination Committee unfairly penalized someone. Their papers were rescreened to see if they were "fit to practice", and if so, extra points were awarded where merited.

There were in total 958 candidates, scoring an average of 47 points. The scores ranged from 7 to 86.

Thursday, March 03, 2016 D 2016 - our answer to the DII part

Our answer to the DII-part of the D2016 is given below.
Our answer to the DI-part is available in a separate post"D 2016 - our answers to the DI-part".
First impressions to the paper are given in another thread "First impressions D2016?".
We will post copies of the paper as soon as we received a clean copy (English, French and German).
All blogs allow anyone to add comments and already have a lot of valuable, interesting and sometimes surprising discussions between many candidates who posted their comments as well as tutors resulted from those.

Any remarks, (different) opinions and questions about our answer are welcome! Please post your contribution as comments to this blog, so everybody can participate in and benefit from the discussion/ explanation.
Please do not post your comments anonymously - it is allowed, but it makes responding more difficult and rather clumsy ("Dear Mr/Mrs/Ms Anonymous of 27-02-2015 23:49"), whereas using your real name or alternatively a pseudonym (nick-name) is more personal, more interesting and makes a more attractive conversation.

Comments are welcome in any official EPO language, not just English. So, comments in German and French are also very welcome!

Be reminded that the task in DII is to advise the client how to build and use a patent portfolio to support his business and to advise the client how to deal with third party’s rights that may prevent him from doing his business. It is thus not sufficient to only use legal patent terms (prosecute, infringe, within scope): you need use real life words that a real life client can understand (you will have protection for R, so you can stop your competitor from making/selling/using/importing ... in FR; your competitor has protection for S, so you can be stopped from producing ... in CZ). In DII you have to -and can- fully concentrate on giving an adequate advice without being disturbed by looking up and citing legal basis.

Where we give legal basis, this is for information only or to briefly explain a legal concept - legal basis is not required in the DII-part for points, but you can use it to clearly explain your answer to the marker. For example, it is a lot easier to label something an Art.54(3) application than to explain it.

Click "Read more" to read our answer,

Roel, Pete, Jelle

Wednesday, March 02, 2016 D 2016 - our answers to the DI-part

Our answer to the DI-part of the D 2016 is given below.
Our answer to the DII-part is available in a separate post"D 2016 - our answers to the DII-part".
First impressions to the paper are given in another thread "First impressions D2016?".

We will post copies of the paper as soon as we received a clean copy (English, French and German).
All blog threads allow anyone to add comments and already have a lot of valuable, interesting and sometimes surprising discussions between many candidates who posted their comments as well as tutors resulted from those.Any remarks, (different) opinions and questions as are welcome! Please post your contribution as comments to this blog, so everybody can paticipate in and benefit from the discussion/ explanation.
Please do not post your comments anonymously - it is allowed, but it makes responding more difficult and rather clumsy ("Dear Mr/Mrs/Ms Anonymous of 02-03-2016 14:56"), whereas using your real name or even a pseudonym (nick-name) is more personal, more interesting and makes a more attractive conversation.
Be reminded that the task in DI is to show to the Exam Committee that you understand the law and can apply the law. The law tested is the EPC, the PCT, the Paris Convention, decisions and opinions of the Enlarged Board of Appeal (G-decisions as well as R-decisions on petitions for review), established case law of the Technical and Legal Boards of Appeal (T- and J-decisions), a general knowledge of the national laws of the EPC Contracting States "to the extent that they apply to European patent applications and European patents" and of the US and Japan.

Hereto, you need to give an answer supported by step-by-step reasoning, citing specific legal provisions or other reference, such as an OJ EPO publication.

Click "Read more" to read our answer,
Roel, Pete, Jelle & Gregory

Tuesday, March 01, 2016 First impressions D 2016?

To all who sat the D-paper today:

What are your first impressions to this year's D-paper? Any general or specific comments?

Were the topics well balanced in the DI-part?

Was the balance between EPC and PCT right for you? Substantive topics in DI?

Which of the the DI Questions did you consider particularly difficult, and which relatively 'easy'?

Did you skip any DI-questions? if so, why? Too difficult, or allocating the time for another question?

Were the legal issues in the DII-part well doable? Patentability? Difficult priority analysis? Business situation and relevance clear? Exploitation?

Did errors with one of the legal issues or one of the patentability issues in DII have a big knock-on effect on the rest of the paper in your view (the D papers of the last three years were very well designed in this respect!)?

How much time did you allocate for DI, how much for DII?

Which part did you do first, DI or DII?

How many marks do you expect to have scored in the DI-part, in the DII-part, and for the wholeWhat is your expectation of the pass rate and the average score?

How did this year's D-paper compare to the D2013, D2014 and D2015 (assuming your practiced those) - DI and DII-wise?

The paper and our answers

Copies of the D-paper will be provided on this blog as soon as we have received copies of the papers, in all three languages here (English [available]], French and German).

The core of our answers will be given as soon as possible in two separate blog posts: one for the DI-questions and another post for the DII-part.

We look forward to your comments!

Comments are welcome in any official EPO language, not just English. So, comments in German and French are also very welcome!

Please do not post your comments anonymously - it is allowed, but it makes responding more difficult and rather clumsy ("Dear Mr/Mrs/Ms Anonymous of 03-03-2015 03:03"), whereas using your real name or a pseudonym is more personal, more interesting and makes a more attractive conversation. You do not need to log in or make an account - it is OK to just put your (nick) name at the end of your post.

Please post your comments as to first impressions and general remarks to the D-paper as a whole, and to the two parts (DI and DII) as whole part to this blog.

Please post substantial questions to specific DI questions to our DI post and DII-related questions to our DII post. Thanks!

Roel, Pete, Jelle, Gregory, Heide

Thursday, January 14, 2016 Our FREE printable versions of the PCT Applicants Guide - available now for EQE 2016

Every year, the WIPO produces a printable version of the complete PCT Applicants Guide, including all the annexes, specifically for the Pre- and Main Exam. The current version can be found here. However, this version is 1800 pages, and much of the information provided will never be required at the exam because it falls outside the syllabus.

Candidates already have enough to take to the exam. Based upon the EQE Regulations, past D papers and comments from the D Examination Committee, we have produced this abbreviated version to lighten the load and to save a few trees.

Additionally, the WIPO provides useful overviews on its website to use at the exam, such as the PCT reservations, overviews for restoration of priority etc. which we have also included. Many candidates are unaware of their existence, and they are not even included in the official 1800 page version.

Our document of about 875 pages will be available (form next week) free of charge to download from the DeltaPatents website (www.deltapatents.com) – navigate to Training / Course Links and look under PCT for the “PCT references”. Use the links below if you want to download them this week. Please feel free to pass on the links to anyone who needs them.

To save paper when printing, it is designed to be printed with 2 pages on each side of an A4.

Basic information is included for all PCT states such as Treaty membership, reservations, national entry deadlines etc. For the most relevant states, almost all information from the Applicants Guide annexes is included:

• The top 21 receiving Offices in 2014 and the top 20 dO/eO’s in 2013 (WIPO statistics) 
• All EPC states and all extension states 
• All ISA’a, SISA’s, IPEA’s, and all Intergovernmental Organizations

Extensive information is provided for the EPO. For the other four largest patent offices - CN, EP, JP, KR, US, the complete summary of entry requirements and national procedure from the national chapter is provided (the fees and forms have been removed).

New this year:

• Full details of the validation states Morocco (MA) and Moldova (MD) have been added
• Part I (General) now includes an overview of offices participating in the DAS system. This is included because it also explains how DAS is used. Note that the EPO does not yet participate in this system. This will never be tested in depth on the D paper - just know that this system exists.
• Part I (General) now includes an overview of national security restrictions. It is included because a number of EPC states are mentioned (this information is also in the National Law book) and the US. This will never be tested in depth on the D paper as it is related to national law - just know that these problems exist.

This reference is split into 3 parts:

• Part I (General) – Dec 2015 (128 pages)
• Part II (International Phase) – Dec 2015 (534 pages)
• Part III (National Phase) – Dec 2015 (212 pages)

Good luck at the EQE!

Wednesday, March 25, 2015 Training for EQE 2016

A brief overview of our training offers for EQE 2016 is given in this other blog.

Details can be found on our website ("training" and "webshop")

Hope to see you in once of our courses!