This Thursday, 14 December 2023, the Administrative Council
of the EPO adopted, unanimously, the new "Regulation on the European
qualifying examination for professional representatives" (REE) for the New
EQE (CA/D 25/23). The Implementing
Regulations thereto are expected to be adapted by the
Supervisory Board of the EQE in the coming week(s). The new REE enters into
forms on 1 January 2025 and will supersede those of 2009. The new REE, together with the IPREE, contains details
transitional provisions.
EQE 2024 will still be conducted under the current
provisions, i.e., with a Pre-Exam and papers A, B, C and D.
The new papers of the New EQE will be gradually introduced as
of 2025 (Art. 27 REE):
- a new Foundation paper in 2025,
- new Main exam papers M1 and M2 in 2026, and
- new Main exam papers M3 and M4 in 2027.
The EQEs of 2025 and 2026 will also still comprise the
current A, B, C and D papers for those candidates eligible for those papers and
wanting to take those (unless they have already enrolled for a New EQE paper,
in which case they need to continue in the New EQE system).
For the current EQE, sitting the Pre-Exam requires a 2-year full-time
supervised training period for patent attorney trainees (" including taking part in a wide range of activities pertaining to European patent applications or European patents") and 3 years for EPO examiners,
and sitting the A, B, C and D papers requires 3-year full-time supervised
training for patent attorney trainees and 4 yrs for examiners.
For the New EQE,
the required training periods are the same for patent attorney trainees and for
EPO examiners (Art. 11 REE):
- the new Foundation paper requires at least 1 yr of full-time supervised
training,
- the new Main exam papers M1 and M2 requires 2 yrs of full-time supervised
training, and
- the new Main exam papers M3 and M4 requires 3 yrs of full-time supervised
training.
DeltaPatents will provide Foundation Integrated & Foundation Distance Learning courses to allow candidate to prepare thoroughly for the the legal part as well as the claims part of the Foundation paper of 2025 (see below).
