Tuesday, March 07, 2023 D 2023: first impressions?

To all who sat the D-paper today: 

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

How did this year's D-paper compare to the earlier D papers of 2013 - 2022?

Were the D1 questions and the D2 part similar as to its subjects and difficulty as the last few years (apart from the ratio this year being 55:45 rather than 2022's 45:55, 2021's 50:50 or the earlier 40:60)?

How did the split of the paper into 3 parts influence your exam? 

Was the additional 20% of time for doing each of the D1 parts and the D2 part sufficient to compensate for the restrictions caused by the fixed time schedule of 3 parts? 

How did you use the breaks? Could you forget about the finished part and free your mind for the next part in each break? Were the breaks long enough? 

Did you also take any unscheduled breaks?

Were the topics well balanced in the D1-part? Was the balance between EPC and PCT right for you? Any substantive topics in D1 (e.g., partial priority; disclaimers; plants; double patenting)? 

Any recent law changes in D1 (Rule 28(2) EPC, G 3/19 and the relevance of 1/7/2017; PCT Rule 20.5bis and the EPO reservation that was still applicable on 31/10/2022; ADA2022)?

Which of the the D1 Questions did you consider particularly difficult, and which relatively 'easy'?

Did you skip any D1-questions? If so, why (e.g., too difficult, allocating the time for another question, no time left)?

Did you use the legal texts that were available online (EPO legal texts, PCT Applicant's Guide, PCT Treaty)? Which, how?

Were the legal issues in the D2-part well doable? Amount of information? Complexity of the inventions/subject-matter? Patentability? Difficult priority analysis? Divisional issues? Opposition? Appeal - reformatio in peuis? Non-standard topics (disclaimers, double patenting, plants)? Non-standard claim formats? Business situation and relevance clear? Exploitation? 

Did you experience any technical difficulties during the exam? How & how fast were they solved? Did you use the widget to contact the invigilator? 

Please be reminded that, if you wish to lodge a complaint pursuant to point I.8. of the Instructions to candidates concerning the conduct of the examination , you must do so at the latest by the end of the day on which the paper concerned takes place, by filling in the dedicated form on the EQE online page: the Form for paper D is (only) available on 07.03.2023, 16:45 - 23:59, CET (here).

Tuesday, March 07, 2023 Our paper D 2023 blog will be open for comments after the exam (7 March 2023, 16:45)

Good luck with paper D 2023!

Our EQE blogs will be open for your comments and opinions w.r.t. the Pre-Exam, A, B, C and D shortly after the exams. We will post our (provisional) answers to the various papers shortly after the exam. 

Wednesday, September 28, 2022 EQE 2023 exam schedule now available: Paper D

 The "Information on the schedule for the EQE 2023 examination papers" is now available on the EQE website. 

The EQE 2023 will take place online using the same setup as the EQE of 2021 and 2022.

Paper D will have the same syllabus and character as before, but it will be split into three parts: 

1. a first D1 part of three questions and 27 marks (1 h 35 min),
2. a second D1 part of three questions and 28 marks (1 h 40 min), and
3. a D2 part of 45 marks (2 h 45 min)

Once the time allowed for a part has elapsed, it will not be possible to go back to that part.

The D1:D2 ratio is this 55:45, with more than half of the marks available for D1 and less than half for D2. (See here).

Each part must be completed before the start of the next break, with the next part only becoming available after the break. Paper D lasts six hours.

No calendars will be provided (see here).

(Note that that the document may be subject to minor changes as testing continues. Please check the EQE website for updates)

Please feel invited to post your comments. You are allowed to post anonymously and do not need an account, but please give your name or a nickname for an easy and inter-human interaction.

Tuesday, March 08, 2022 D 2022 - The DII part: FEED, CLEAN, SPRAY

 

This year's D2 was a paper of 3 h 20 min (13:25 - 16:45 CET) and 55 marks. The paper had to be taken fully from the screen in Wiseflow - nothing was printable. The pdf of the paper could be viewed side-by-side with the editor, without annotation possibility; or in one or more separate tabs, with annotation possibility (note here). For the first time, no calendars were given with the exam paper, but candidates had to bring their own lists of Saturdays and Sundays and had to check EPO closure dates in the OJ (see here). 

As usually, the paper required a careful analysis of a plurality of EP and PCT patent applications from the client (OTP) and another party (TOR). The various applications described and/or claimed one or more of:

a) a FEED machine with a feeding duct, 

b) a FEED machine with two feeding ducts, 

c) a CLEAN method, 

d) a SPRAY device, and 

e) a FEED machine with a SPRAY device.

Tuesday, March 08, 2022 D 2022 - The DI part

 

Today's D1 addressed a variety of topics, distributed over 2 parts with a 30 minute break in between:

• D1-1 had 3 questions, for a total of 26 marks, and had to be done from 9:30-11:00. 
• D1-2 also had 3 questions, for a total of 19 marks, and had to be done from 11:30-12:40.

The paper had to be taken fully from the screen in Wiseflow - nothing was printable. The pdf of the paper could be viewed side-by-side with the editor, without annotation possibility; or in one or more separate tabs, with annotation possibility (note here) - when I did the paper as a benchmarker today, I copied the D1 questions in the editor to have them in the same field-of-view as my answer and to be able to annotated them while staying in the same window (see here). 

For the first time, no calendars were given with the exam paper, but candidates had to bring their own lists of Saturdays and Sundays and had to check EPO closure dates in the OJ (see here). 

Tuesday, March 08, 2022 Paper D Online EQE 2022: first impressions?

To all who sat the D-paper today:

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

How did this year's D-paper compare to the earlier D papers of 2013 - 2021?

Were the D1 questions and the D2 part similar as to its subjects and difficulty as the last few years (apart from the ratio this year being 45:55 rather than 2021's 50:50 or the earlier 40:60)?

Was the additional 20% of time for doing each D1 part and the D2 part sufficient to compensate for the restrictions caused by the fixed time schedule of 3 parts? 

Were the topics well balanced in the D1-part? Was the balance between EPC and PCT right for you? Any substantive topics in D1 (e.g., was partial priority tested; were disclaimer tested)?

Which of the the D1 Questions did you consider particularly difficult, and which relatively 'easy'?

Did you skip any D1-questions? If so, why (e.g., too difficult, allocating the time for another question, no time left)?

Were the legal issues in the D2-part well doable? Amount of information? Complexicity of the inventions/subject-matter? Patentability? Difficult priority analysis? Non-standard claim formats? Business situation and relevance clear? Exploitation? 

Did you experience any technical difficulties during the exam? How & how fast were they solved? Did you sue the widget to contact the invigilator?

How did the split of the paper into 3 parts influence your preparation? How did it effect your exam? How did you use the breaks? Could you forget about the finished part and free your mind for the next part in each break? Were the breaks long enough? Did you also take any unscheduled breaks?

Tuesday, March 08, 2022 Paper D 2022 blog will open after the end of the exam, 8 March 2022 16:45

Good luck with paper D!

Our EQE blogs will be open for your comments and opinions w.r.t. the Pre-Exam, A, B, C and D shortly after the exams. We will post our (provisional) answers to the various papers shortly after the exam. To facilitate the discussions, we will also post copies of the papers as soon as possible after we received reasonably clean copies.

Do not post any comments as to the merits of the answers of a certain exam paper/flow on the blogs while an exam/flow is still ongoing. Also, do not post the invigilator password or anything else that may be considered the breach of the exam regulations, instructions to the candidates, code of conducts, etc (see, e.g.,  e-EQE website and the emails from the EQE secretariat).

All candidates, as well as tutors who helped candidates prepare for EQE 2022, are invited to contribute to the discussions on our EQE blogs! You can post your comments in English, French or German. You are invited to post your comments under your real name, but it is also possible to use a nickname if you wish to hide your identify.

The DeltaPatents team

NB: you can not comment to this blog post; comments will be accepted from a new blog post as of 16:45