Each year WIPO publishes a special version of the PCT Applicant's Guide, specifically and helpfully created for patent students who will be sitting the European Qualifying Examination, which runs this year from 29 February to 3 March.
A brand-new version of the PCT Applicant's Guide, up to date as of December 31, 2015, has just been published here. The IPKat struggles to imagine a more entertaining way for EQE candidates to spend their weekend than perusing the 1,795 pages of this reference.
Many thanks to Katfriend Rosina Bisi, the Head of the PCT Knowledge Management Section, for alerting the IPKat and his readers to this publication.
A brand-new version of the PCT Applicant's Guide, up to date as of December 31, 2015, has just been published here. The IPKat struggles to imagine a more entertaining way for EQE candidates to spend their weekend than perusing the 1,795 pages of this reference.
Many thanks to Katfriend Rosina Bisi, the Head of the PCT Knowledge Management Section, for alerting the IPKat and his readers to this publication.
EQE student version of PCT Applicant's Guide
![EQE student version of PCT Applicant's Guide]()
Reviewed by David Brophy
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Saturday, January 16, 2016
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What is the point of requiring candidates to carry with them these 1800 pages of repetitive facts?
ReplyDeleteWould dropping these pages from the list of required materials really impact the quality of the European representative? Does the Examination Board really need the option to ask the candidate whether the Saudi Patent Office accepts the filing of documents by fax (it does)?
Using this material is bread and butter to the active attorney. The EQE tests not only the ability to recall and apply a syllabus, but also to rapidly interrogate and apply information in standard desk references, as the attorney might be called upon to use, under pressure, in real life situations. It is a fitness-to-practice test, not a pub quiz. For the same reasons, mathematics exams allow the use of books of tables of integrals and series, and engineering exams allow the use of books of physical constants. "Use of Library" was something thad developed rapidly during my own EQE preparation, such that even now, several years on, I can tell the interested enquirier where to find the answer across a whole library of occasionally consulted reference works.
ReplyDeleteKnowing that the Saudi office accepts the filing of documents by fax, by the way, can save certain time limits from otherwise fatal lapse, under the right circumstances, by virtue of the combination of a GMT+3 time zone shift and Islamic public holidays.
Each year, DeltaPatents prepare a condensed version based on the WIPO material. As a former (successful) EQE candidate I can recommend DeltaPatents' version.
ReplyDeleteSee:
http://eqe-d.blogspot.nl/2016/01/our-free-printable-versions-of-pct.html
LibrariansRuleOook mentioned time zones
ReplyDeleteI sat the EQE 3 years ago, and I don't remember from my preparations, nor from later EQE's questions related to late filing by using filing offices in different time zone's than CET, eg UK, Ireland, Portugal, Iceland, or more challengingly, French, Dutch or Danish (or...?) far western parts of their countries.
Would have been interesting. In theory, 9 or 10 hr late filing is possible by choosing some far west filing office (French Polynesia?).
Unfortunately this is a gray area in the exam requirements. The syllabus is theoretically open-ended and you can take as many books as you want. The result is that many candidates waste a lot of time collecting information in case it might be needed - they take a whole suitcase of books. The size is mainly due to including all the national entry chapters (including forms and fees) which are completely irrelevant.
ReplyDeleteI realise that it is not always desirable to set strict limits on what you can test, but the PCT questions could be perfectly adequately tested by officially limiting the information to just the EPC states (& extension/validation states), EPO, IB, US, Japan (already formally part of the syllabus) and maybe one or more frequently encountered states (in real-life) such as China, India, Korea, Russia, Australia, Brazil. For PCT questions over the last few years, they tend to stick to EPO and US, and for DII the timelimits for national entry (30m/31m) for one or two states. This is the approach used to make the DeltaPatents version mentioned in the comment above - although it is 800 pages, it does also have a lot of other useful information from the WIPO and EPO websites which the official version does not have.