Monday, March 30, 2020 Enrolment to the main examination 2021 postponed

The EQE website provides:

Please be informed that enrolment to the main examination 2021, which was due to start on 1 April 2020, has been postponed until 4 May 2020. 

Applications must be submitted no later than 17 August 2020 via myEQE (see enrolment page).

Thursday, March 05, 2020 BREAKING NEWS - Cancellation of EQE planned 16-19 March 2020 (possibly postponed)

We have been informed by an EQE candidate that he just received the email below (emphasis added):

EQE 2020 is cancelled, or possibly postponed to later this year - to be continued.

From: HelpDesk <helpdesk@eqe.org>
Sent: donderdag 5 maart 2020 09:10
To:
Subject: cancellation of EQE planned 16-19 March 2020

Dear candidate,

In response to the latest developments about the spread of the novel Coronavirus (Covid-19), the Supervisory Board of the European qualifying examination has decided in line with the EPO’s precautionary measures to cancel the EQE planned to take place 16-19 March 2020.

The Supervisory Board is currently assessing the feasibility of organising the examination at a later stage during the current year. We would kindly ask for your understanding that due to the complex logistic arrangements related to the organisation of the EQE, this assessment will require some time.  The Examination Secretariat will revert back to you as soon as there is a decision taken by the Supervisory Board. Also, please understand that due to the high number of enquiries received, answering individual questions will take more time than usual.

We sincerely regret this highly unsatisfactory situation for all concerned. Further information will follow in due course, in particular related to the reimbursement of the fees.

Best regards

The Examination Secretariat

European Qualifying Examination EQE

European Patent Office

80298 Munich | Germany

Tel. +49 (0)89 2399 5155 (Mon, Wed-Fri 09.00-11.00 hrs, Tues 14.00-15.30 hrs)

Fax +49 (0)89 2399 5140

helpdesk@eqe.org

www.epo.org

Please consider the environment before printing this email.

Friday, December 20, 2019 Tutor's Report EQE2019

The "Tutors‘ Report on the EQE 2019 Papers and the Meeting between Tutors and EQE Committees" by N. Cordes (NL), L. Ferreira (PT), A. Hards (DE), K. Hartvichova (CZ), H. Marsman (NL), S. van Rijnswou (NL), and R. van Woudenberg (NL) has been published in epi Information 4/2019.

See here for pdf (page 40 ff) and html versions.

Friday, November 29, 2019 EQE 2021 (pre-exam and main exam) announced in OJ EPO

OJ 2019, A98 comprises the Announcement of the European qualifying examination 2021 – Pre‑examination and main examination.

The Annoucement includes a lot of detail. Please refer to the original Notice for all detail. This blog post only serves to inform you on the existence of the annoucements.

A few main items from the Annoucement:

Tuesday, November 19, 2019 Updates to our L-, P- and D-books for EQE2020

In view of legal changes that only became known after our Questions and Answers books were published, which supersede and/or supplemente some of the legal references (OJ, case law) in our books, we provide three update documents on our website, for our books:

• "Basic legal Questions for Pre-Exam and Paper D" (“L-book”, edition July 2019, EQE 2020): update 15 Nov 2019
• "Pre-Exam book - Cases/Exams" (“P-book”, edition July 2019, EQE 2020): update 15 Nov 2019
• "Main-Exam Questions for Paper D" (“D-book”, edition July 2019, EQE 2020): update 15 Nov 2019

Each document comprises updates and corrections to the Introduction, the Study Guide (not in the P-book), Questions and Answers in the books in view of:

• Publications in OJ EPO after the Book was printed (OJ July 2019 – 31 Oct 2019) - incl. the new ADA/AAD (in force since 1 October 2019);
• Publications in PCT Newsletter after the Book was printed (PCT NL July 2019 – 31 Oct 2019);
• New How to Get Guide (19th edition, issued 7 October 2019, updated to 1 April 2019);
• Corrections to the questions and answers;
• Answers to referrals G 1/18 and G 2/19 (not yet in OJ).

Note that the legal syllabus is defined as valid on 31 October 2019 (Rule 2 IPREE), on which the November 2018-edition of the Guidelines GL/EPO and GL/PCT-EPO was in force.

We thank all who provided any comments and all candidates who participated in our legal training courses, as well as those that gave feedback on our material via email, for useful feedback. Any further comments are highly appreciated.

Monday, November 11, 2019 References EQE2020

For EQE 2020, the legal status on 31 October 2019 is the relevant date.

As some of the information on the various websites (EPO, WIPO/PCT) may have superseded the versions applicable on 31 October when you look for the information, we made a compilation of various legal references.

Note: We do not intend to be complete: you will not find all documents listed in the IPREE in our compilation. See Art. 13 REE and  Rule 22 IPREE for the official syllabus.

We have made 4 compilations:

1. EQE
2. EPC
3. EPO and EPC (EPO information)
4. PCT (WIPO information)

The references can be found on our website: Training--> Course links, item EQE (top right of page)

The compilations are provided as pdf-files. You may wish to print (parts of each of) them on A5-format yourself or let them be printed as an A4- or A5-size book on thinner paper by a company like pumbo.nl.

The references may be useful in addition to your standard EPC Reference books, such as Hoekstra's References to the EPC.

The 4 parts comprise:

Thursday, September 05, 2019 EQE 2020 – second phase of pilot project for writing Papers A, B, C and D on a computer

The EQE Secretariat has published a Notice on the second phase of pilot project for writing Papers A, B, C and D (EQE 2020) on a computer.

The Notice indicates that, as in the first phase, candidates sitting all 4 papers for the first time and who are prepared to write at the Munich examination centre can be considered. Interested candidates fulfilling these criteria should contact the Examination Secretariat. If there are more volunteers than available places, candidates will be selected randomly. The pilot group will type their answers in a secure environment using a text editor program consisting of basic editing features. All other rules and conditions pursuant to the EQE will apply to the pilot. For full details, refer to the Notice and to the “Technical User Manual”.

The Notice dd 30 August 2019 can be found on the EQE webpages (here) and is reproduced below: