Monday, May 13, 2024 D 14/23 - Successful A 2023 appeal: "(suitable) for"

Appeals against decisions on EQE Paper A results are only rarely successful, due to the limited competence of he Disciplinary Board of Appeal in handling these appeals (see reason 2 of the decision below). But this one was! The reasoning from the DBA seems to fully follow the reasoning provided by the candidate, and the Examination Committee gets a clear message in reason 3.3 (and, in view of the message being so explicit and clear, one may also consider it to be addressed to the Examination Board which could/should have granted interlocutory revision, which would have given a positive result already by September 2023, well before the next EQE, rather than in May 2024, well after the next EQE). 

Thursday, March 07, 2024 Our solution for Paper A 2024 - Deploying liquid into a well

Here's our attempt at this year's paper A.  

The topic was a device for deploying a liquid into a well, and to a method of treating a well using the device. While the device is quite structural/mechanical, aspects of its use (e.g., use of glue as the deployment liquid) were more chemistry-themed. A main problem seemed to be to draft the device in such a way that it is novel over D2 (which actually is from a more remote field, namely turbines).

You can find our attempt and discussion at the 'read more' below.

Comments are welcome in any official EPO language, not just English. So, comments in German and French are also very welcome!

Please do not post your comments anonymously - it is allowed, but it makes responding more difficult and rather clumsy ("Dear Mr/Mrs/Ms Anonymous of 02-03-2021 22:23"), whereas using your real name or a nickname is more personal, more interesting and makes a more attractive conversation. You do not need to log in or make an account - it is OK to just put your (nick) name at the end of your post.

Nico and Sander

Thursday, March 07, 2024 A 2024: first impressions?

To all who sat the A-paper today:

What are your first impressions to this year's A-paper?
Any general or specific comments?
Surprising elements in the client's letter and the prior art?

How did this year's paper compare to the papers of the last few years? Similar difficulty level?

Was the subject-matter well understandable, for chemists as well as e/m candidates?
Multiple independent claims? Functional features? Could you find the wording for claim features in the clients letter and the prior art?

Did you have enough time?
How many marks do you expect to have scored?
What is your expectation of the pass rate and the average score?

What was the effect of doing it online? Of typing your answer rather than writing it by hand? Could you benefit from being able to copy from the exam paper into your answer? And from copying parts of your answer elsewhere into your answer?

How did you experience taking the exam from your home or office location rather than in an examination center?

What was the effect of the situation that you had to take the exam largely from the screen (as only a  part could be printed) rather than from paper?

Did you experience any technical difficulties during the exam? How & how fast were they solved?

Thursday, March 07, 2024 Our paper A 2024 blog will open for comments after the exam, 7 March 2024, 13:30

Good luck with paper A!

Our EQE blogs will be open for your comments and opinions w.r.t. the Pre-Exam, A, B, C and D shortly after the exams.

Do not post any comments as to the merits of the answers of a certain exam paper/flow on the blogs while an exam/flow is still ongoing. Also, do not post the invigilator password or anything else that may be considered the breach of the exam regulations, instructions to the candidates, code of conducts, etc (see, e.g., EQE homepage, MyEQE, and the emails from the EQE secretariat)..

All candidates, as well as tutors who helped candidates prepare for EQE 2024, are invited to contribute to the discussions on our EQE blogs! You can post your comments in English, French or German. You are invited to post your comments under your real name, but it is also possible to use a nickname if you wish to hide your identify.

The DeltaPatents team

 NB: you can not comment to this blog post; comments will be accepted from a new blog post as of 13:30

Monday, August 14, 2023 EQE 2024 exam schedule now available: Paper A

The "Information on the schedule for the EQE 2024 examination papers" (dated 27 July 2023) is now available on the EQE website. 

The EQE 2024 will take place online using the examination software Wiseflow, with substantially the same setup as the e-EQE/Online EQE of 2021, 2022 and 2023.

Paper A lasts four hours (9:30 - 13:30 CET)

Candidates will be allowed to print the prior-art documents and the drawings of the application, but not the letter of the applicant. The documents allowed for printing will be made available approximately ten minutes before the start of the examination.

(Note that that the document may be subject to minor changes as testing continues. Please check the EQE website for updates)

Please feel invited to post your comments. You are allowed to post anonymously and do not need an account, but please give your name or a nickname for an easy and inter-human interaction.

Monday, March 13, 2023 Our solution for Paper A 2023 - Electric plaster for skin problems

Here's our attempt at this year's paper A.  

The topic was electric plasters for treating skin. A voltage was created by placing a triboelectric material between two copper sheets. The voltage is then transferred to the skin. This can have a medical application, treatment of wounds, or a non-medial application, treatment of wrinkles. 

EQE aficionados might consider this a sequel to paper C of 2012. First impression is a well made paper without major problems. The focus was mostly on E/M issues. 

You can find our attempt and discussion at the 'read more' below. 

[Update 14/3/2023:] We also added the full text and figures of the paper at the end of the blog post for easy reference.

We look forward to your comments!
Comments are welcome in any official EPO language, not just English. So, comments in German and French are also very welcome!

Please do not post your comments anonymously - it is allowed, but it makes responding more difficult and rather clumsy ("Dear Mr/Mrs/Ms Anonymous of 02-03-2021 22:23"), whereas using your real name or a nickname is more personal, more interesting and makes a more attractive conversation. You do not need to log in or make an account - it is OK to just put your (nick) name at the end of your post.

Thursday, March 09, 2023 A 2023: first impressions?

To all who sat the A-paper today:

What are your first impressions to this year's A-paper?
Any general or specific comments?
Surprising elements in the client's letter and the prior art?

How did this year's paper compare to the papers of the last few years? Similar difficulty level?

Was the subject-matter well understandable, for chemists as well as e/m candidates?
Multiple independent claims? Functional features? Could you find the wording for claim features in the clients letter and the prior art?

Did you have enough time?
How many marks do you expect to have scored?
What is your expectation of the pass rate and the average score?

What was the effect of doing it online? Of typing your answer rather than writing it by hand? Could you benefit from being able to copy from the exam paper into your answer? And from copying parts of your answer elsewhere into your answer?

How did you experience taking the exam from your home or office location rather than in an examination center?

What was the effect of the situation that you had to take the exam largely from the screen (as only a  part could be printed) rather than from paper?

Did you experience any technical difficulties during the exam? How & how fast were they solved?

The paper and our answers

Copies of the paper will be provided on this blog as soon as we have received copies of the papers, preferably in all three languages (English, French and German). Should you have a copy, please send it to any of our tutors or to training@deltapatents.com. [Update 13/3/2023: the paper is  available in Wiseflow EPO -  EQE Compendium, and copied from there to the end of the blog with our answer]

The core of our answers will be given as soon as possible in a separate blog post.

Please be reminded that you can view and print/download  copy of your exam answer after the exam, via the eye below the "1. Paper"-icon in the bottom left part of the flow window of the respective flow. (It may not be available immediately after the official end of the (part of the) paper, but only 30-60 minutes later.) Apart from the pre-printable parts, the paper itself cannot be downloaded (unless you copied it in full into your exam answer).

We look forward to your comments!
Comments are welcome in any official EPO language, not just English. So, comments in German and French are also very welcome!

Please do not post your comments anonymously - it is allowed, but it makes responding more difficult and rather clumsy ("Dear Mr/Mrs/Ms Anonymous of 09-03-2023 21:09"), whereas using your real name or a nick name is more personal, more interesting and makes a more attractive conversation. You do not need to log in or make an account - it is OK to just put your (nick) name at the end of your post.

Please post your comments as to first impressions and general remarks to this blog.
Please post responses to our answer (as soon as available) to the separate blog post with our answer.
Thanks!