Wednesday, July 17, 2013 Some statistics on EQE 2013 Paper C

Total number of candidates with a mark higher than 0: 1202

                                       #       %
Fail (1-44)                       536  44.6
Compensable fail (45-49)  142  11.8
Pass (50-100)                  524  43.6
[slight change compared to our original version where we, by mistake, had the figure of pass at 678 instead of 524].

The pass rate is significantly higher than in 2012 (went up from 33.1% to 43.6%).

Average mark: 47.0
Highest mark:   88

Distribution of marks:

Jelle Hoekstra (thanks to Joeri Beetz for supplying the data)

Tuesday, March 05, 2013 Overview of our blogs

This blog page covers our blogs on EQE Paper C.

For our other blog pages, please click on the appropriate tab above or on the appropriate link below.

• Unitary patent and unified patent court
• EQE Pre-Exam
• EQE Paper D
• General patent law blog

Tuesday, March 05, 2013 Paper C EQE 2013 - Impressions

Time was reduced from 6 hours to five hours. This seems to be made possible in the way I expected it to be done: less attacks (only five claims) and one piece of prior art less compared to most previous C exams. So far, I get the impression that most candidates managed in the given time.

For more impressions, please read further.

I welcome your impressions.

Jelle Hoekstra

Thursday, February 28, 2013 Paper C EQE 2013 - Our solution

Three of our tutors, Sander van Rijnswou, Joeri Beetz, and me, independently made the exam. We all had exactly the same solution.
We made it a bit fast; errors can never be ruled out; some other attacks may have been intended too, or at least be awarded some marks. For that we have to wait until the exam committee publishes their model solution and comments.

Check out our solution by reading further.

Jelle Hoekstra

Monday, August 06, 2012 Paper C 2012 - The solution according to the exam committee

Earlier today, the EPO published the examiner's report on the EPO website. According to the exam committee, the correct attacks are:
Claim 1: Nov A3, Nov A5
Claim 2: A2 + A6
Claim 3: A4 + A5 and A4 + A6
Claim 4: A3 + A4
Claim 5: Nov A3, Nov A5
Claim 6: Inv A4
Claim 7: A6 + A5
A quick comparison to my own solution tells me that I can agree on almost all attacks. I am, however rather shocked by what the exam committee did at claim 3.

For more details, please click to read further.

Tuesday, July 24, 2012 Training for resitters

For those who unfortunately failed the C exam, DeltaPatents has extended its programme for providing additional training and guidance for resitters.

We offer the following choice:

1. 1. 3-day C Methodology Course for re-sitters
2. 2. NEW: 1-day ‘Guided resitting’ course for paper C
3. 3. Correction of your exam paper
4. 4. NEW: Personal guidance

A detailed description can be found here: resitters courses.

In addition, you can use:

• our normal range of training courses, such as guided exam training
• our training material, such as the updated C Methodology book (reflecting the new guidelines) and our updated model solutions.

Friday, July 20, 2012 Changes to Paper C in EQE 2013

For those preparing for paper C in EQE2013, a few things will change. The Examination Board has issued a communication on this subject, replicated below. Additionally, the Guidelines have been thoroughly revised and restructured.

At this moment we are finishing updating our courses and course materials for these changes. Furthermore, we are fine tuning our methodology to make our training even more effective. It is highly recommended that you prepare using up-to-date material and attend courses that have been updated for the new exam. As before, our courses fully focus on teaching you how to argue as desired for this exam. We provide unique detailed templates and flow-charts to assist you in quickly analysing the paper, identifying the attacks and thoroughly argue the attacks. Time management, even more an issue in EQE2013, is an integral part of our courses.

For more details, please continue reading