EQE  EQE  EEP
HomeContactSearchPublications
Articles
Rules
Fees
EPO internal links
Offices
EQE
Site map
© T. Bouvier
tous droits réservés
all rights reserved

Welcome to the EQE workspace.

This space is dedicated for those preparing the EQE.

It is made to share and organise corresponding resources.

 

There are no commercial links between CyberEPC and cited organisations.

If you wish to share resources, please contact me.

     

     

Training centers

- ASPI (FR)                               - EPI

- CEIPI (FR)                              - Patskills 

 

Blogs

- Blog du droit européen des brevets

- EQE Tools

 

Books / Tools

- Commented EPCs (publication language):

     * Derk Visser (EN)

     * Jelle Hoekstra (EN)

     * Roberts & Rudge (EN)

     * EPC-Compass (EN)

     * Gregory Baque (FR)

 

- Training Tools

     * Delta Patents

 

 - EQE Preparation Guide

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

CyberEPC files

 

- DI

 

- See tables in the "Situations" section

 

- Exemple of (FR) annotated EPC (from G. Baque)

See index on right side & color code :

     * fee = green

     * time limit = blue

     * legal effect = red

     * topic / key word = yellow

- DII

(format.xls)

 

- Time limit in days

- Time limit in month

- Legal Form

- Technical Form

- Method, with ref. to the above Forms

 

Guidelines

- Guidelines 2012 (EN) from Rainer Loritz

 

EPO sources

- EQE

- EQE eLearning Centre

- EQE Training Tools

     * Training Paper A

     * Training Paper DII

     * Calendars

     * Mock Pre-Exam

           - 2011 (questions + auto-test)

           - 2010

- Forum

- EQE wiki

 

- Compendium

 

                EQE

 

- OJ 2017, A30

- OJ 2017, A31

- OJ 2017, A32

 

         

 

 

 

PCT

PCT Applicant’s Guide

     * National Phase

     * International Phase

 (Special edition as of 31 December 2011, prepared for EQE candidates)

 

     * Cross-referenced PCT

     * PCT-Compass (GB)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A few elements of method for DII

 

There is no better method than yours. These elements given here shall be adapted and integrated into your own method.

 

Principles

You can't afford wasting time:  read only once, and do as much as you can on the fly.

Two mains tools are provided here: Time limit XLS files and document Legal Forms.

As an additional optional tool: a Technical Form.

 

1.        How do the time limit XLS Files work

XLS Files provided are made not to have to calculate any deadline on the D-Day (Files can be updated to take into account more recent dates);

Roll over your mouse on the cells will guide you.

Starting from the first column, pick the line of the date you need and go to the corresponding column (see first line) that will add corresponding months/days.

For instance, if you have a date in May 2008 and you need to add 2, 4, or 6 months let's say because it's a communication from the EPO, then jump respectively to column D, E, or F to get Jul-2008, Sep-2008, or Nov-2008.

The same applies if you need to add 9, 16 (inventor designation), 18 (publication), 19 (IPE), 21/31 (regional phase) months; or to take away 6 months (Art. 55 EPC).

The same applies for the days e.g. 10 days (R. 134 EPC)

 

2.        How do the Legal Forms work

Legal Forms are made to be filled throughout the reading of the subject. Each individual Form shall contain information relating to one document only (patent, patent application, publication) : EP1, FR2, PCT4 ... and be identified as such.

Roll over your mouse on the cells will guide you.

Each document is identified on top left. On each document's major dates to think of (that you read or calculate) on top right (a bit redundant with the post-it time line then).

The "Spec." box is used to list main features that are said to be described, e.g. shapes in DII 2005.

The "Claims" boxes  are used to:

-          (#) Identify the claim  number

-          (content) list main features that are said to be claimed, and

-          (effective date) Identify the corresponding effective date (priority date or filling date). 5 claims boxes are assumed to be enough.

The "Admin" boxes are used to identify corresponding information (inventors, owner and so on).

The "Fees" boxes are used to classify any information/question related to fees.

The "Questions" box is a space to record any question you may ask yourself in real time on said document.

 

3.       How do the Technical Form work (optional)

Technical Forms are made to be filled throughout the reading of the subject. Each individual Form shall contain information relating to one technical feature per line only, facing for each document patent, patent application, publication such as EP1, FR2, PCT4 ... if that feature is described or claimed in that document.

Roll over your mouse on the cells will guide you.

These forms are a bit redundant with the Legal Form – thus there is still some room for improvement in this method… They are provided because it appeared to be helpful in one or two DII exams.

The underlying idea is to find a way to easily identify features

-          that your client may or may not protect, and/or

-          that competitors will have a monopoly on (in that case, it is recommended to identify in what countries)

in order to help client with what to claim, how, and when, in a further application.

 

About the time line

During the EQE preparation, I faced situation when, once the time lime was drawn, I always missed space to write down more information. That because events in exams are never disclosed in a chronological order.

Therefore I suggest getting rid of this drawing and replace it with a bunch of post-its.

At the moment any event is encountered in the subject of the exam, a post-it is filled in with 3 information: Date, document concerned (EP1, PCT2…), event concerned (Grant, Publication, Filling date…) preferably with a self explanatory code GRT, PUB, FLG and so on.

Post-its are glued to one another in a chronological order. Then if, or rather when, a new event (read or calculated) occurs between two existing post its, it is very easy to insert a new post-it in between without loosing time.

Some may also use a color code with post-its: one color per event or per document.

 

How to organize your exam on the D-Day

Before D-Day : cut a dozen of legal Form (1 per document you may face).

On the D-Day :

-          open the folder,

-          highlight the dates (e.g. in yellow)

-          highlight the documents name (EP1, FR2, PCT4…) in another color (e.g. in blue)

-          highlight all adverbs / keywords (« nevertheless», « surprisingly», etc.)

this helps evacuating (a bit of) stress and structuring (a bit) the exam before reading it in details.

 

-          read the subject in details; fill in the blanks of the Forms in real time. Write down every questions/comments you are thinking of.

This enables further on to ask implicit questions for each given document (e.g. same applicant vs . priority right, are fees paid ? etc…); then, for legal analysis, Forms will serve for pair wise comparisons.

 

-          as an option, you can strikeout on the papers each paragraph once treated, i.e. transferred to the Form. If any unstriked paragraph at the end of the reading, there should be a warning or a clear useless information.

 

-          in parallel, the post-it time line is fullfiled with post-its glued to one another in a chronological order,   with dates you've just read / calculated,

 

 For the analysis

Generally, you have to compare only two documents at one time. According to your time line, it is very easy to grab only the two Forms you need and compare them – each and every useful information should be on them: technical content, relevant dates (disclosed and calculated).

Then you can for instance determine if a priority is validly claimed, and of course record such information of the corresponding Form.

Such method has been tested and is quite appropriate to almost any DII subject, although quite legally-oriented. It can be completed with the technical Form to help your technical thoughts.

 

The EQE is hard to pass, harder to fail…

             Good luck!