Thursday, March 13, 2025 A 2025: lateral flow test - our provisional answer

Two DP-tutors (Nico and Nyske) sat paper A this year as benchmarkers. When comparing our answers, it turned out that we had largely the same solution, differing only in details of the wording.We both stuck closely to the wording of the paper, and incorporated some embodiments of D1 into our (dependent) claims. D1 turned out (again) to have some useful things in it.

A claim 1 according to our solution could read something like:

1. Lateral flow test, comprising:
- a sample pad (1) for receiving a liquid sample (5),
- a conjugate pad (2), which is arranged downstream of the sample pad (1),
the conjugate pad (2) containing a detection agent (11), the detection agent being a conjugate (11) of a first type antibody (10) and a coloured particle (9),
wherein the first type antibody (10) is adapted to specifically recognise and bind to a target molecule (6) in the liquid sample and wherein the coloured particle has a spherical shape,
- a reaction membrane (3), which is arranged downstream of the conjugate pad (2),
which reaction membrane (3) comprises a test line (7), the test line (7) comprising second types antibodies (12) that are specific for the target molecule (6) and are immobilised in a line across the surface of the membrane,
characterised in that the coloured particle is a spherical gold nanoparticle having a diameter of 20 - 100 nm.

Thursday, March 13, 2025 A 2025: first impressions?

To all who sat the A-paper today:

What are your first impressions with respect 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? Or harder/easier?

 

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 the paper online? 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? Did you struggle with the online format in any way? 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?

 

Did you take the exam from your home or your office? Or somewhere else? How did that work for you?

 

Did you experience any technical difficulties during the exam? How and how fast were they resolved? Did you use the widget to contact the invigilator? 

 

Please be reminded that, if you wish to lodge a complaint pursuant to point I.8. of the Instructions to Candidates concerning the conduct of the examination , you must do so at the latest by the end of the day on which the paper concerned takes place, by filling in the dedicated form on the EQE website. The Form for paper A is (only) available on 13.03.2025, 13:30 - 23:59, CET.

The paper and our answers

We aim to post the core our (provisional) answer shortly after the exam in a separate blog post, as soon as possible after we have received a copy of the paper, preferably in all three languages. Should you have a copy, please send it to any of our tutors or to training@deltapatents.com.

Please be reminded that you can view and print/download a 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 13-03-2025 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!

Thursday, March 13, 2025 Our paper A 2025 blog will open for comments after the exam (13 March 2025, 13:30)

Good luck with paper A!

Our EQE blogs will be open for your comments and opinions w.r.t. papers D, A, B, C and F shortly after the respective exams. We aim to post our (provisional) answers to the various papers shortly after we have received a copy of the respective exam paper.

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 2025, 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’t comment to this blog post; comments will be accepted from a new blog post as of 13:30.

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