Friday, March 06, 2026 Our provisional answers to A 2026

Like last year, Nyske and Nico were benchmarkers for paper A. We both concluded that this was not an easy paper. Though we both identified the same relevant issues and problems to be solved in the paper, we sometimes made different decisions or took a different approach. We hope that the Exam Committee will take different solutions into account for this paper, as we feel that in view of the information in the paper that would be justified.

This was a classic “chemistry-style” paper, with various different claim categories that all seemed to have their own specific issues involved. While generally it was clear what was novel in view of the prior art, what can be considered to be inventive was less clear.

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 09, 2017 Our attempt at paper A Dishwashing product

Paper A 2017 Dishwashing product  (paper here: EN, FR and DE)


Claims
1. Dishwashing product comprising a plurality of connected pouches, each pouch comprising a different dishwashing component packaged in a water-soluble polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) film having for each pouch a different thickness of between 10 and 50 µm; wherein the thickness of the film of a pouch is designed to release the component from the pouch during a selected dishwashing cycle.

2. Dishwashing product as claimed in claim 1 wherein at least one of the dishwashing components is solid and at least one of the dishwashing components is liquid.

3. Dishwashing product as claimed in any of the preceding claims wherein the thickness of the film is at least 20 µm.

4. Dishwashing product as claimed in any of the preceding claims wherein the thickness of the film is less than 40 µm.

5. Dishwashing product as claimed in any one of the preceding claims, wherein the dishwashing component in a first one of the pouches comprises a first detergent and the dishwashing component in a second one of the pouches comprises a second, more aggressive detergent; the film of the second pouch having a greater thickness than the film of the first pouch for subsequent release of the detergents during a main wash of the dishwashing cycle.

6. Dishwashing product as claimed in any one of the preceding claims, wherein the dishwashing component in one of the pouches comprises a rinse aid and the thickness of the film of the pouch is selected to release the rinse aid only during a final rinse of the dishwashing cycle.

Monday, June 20, 2016 Examination Papers A and B – Examination Board made mock papers available

With effect from 2017, a single Paper A and a single Paper B will be set each year. As for current Paper C and the Pre-Examination, Papers A and B will be set in technical fields that are accessible to everyone. The Examination Board has made  mock papers available for Paper A (examiner report) and Paper B (examiner report). The examiner reports are currently available in English only.

Wednesday, March 02, 2016 Paper A Electricity/Mechanics 2016 - our main claim

Here it is. Our attempt at the main independent claim of A E/M 2016.


Claim 1. A siphon comprising a housing; the housing comprising:
· a reservoir,
· an inlet opening, and
· an outlet opening;
· the housing being arranged such that liquid can flow from the inlet opening to the outlet opening via the reservoir and fill the reservoir up to an overflow level of the reservoir;
characterised in that the housing further comprises a wall exposed on an inner side to gas entering the housing from the inlet opening and exposed on an outer side to gas entering the housing from the outlet opening; and
the wall extending at least to the overflow level to prevent gas from flowing from the outlet opening to the inlet opening.

The main problem in this exam seems to lie in covering 4 embodiments which fall into two groups (Figs.2 and 3 versus Figs.4 and 5). This makes it difficult to define the position of the openings and puts the pressure on a correct definition of the wall. This is particularly relevant since also in the traditional siphon of Fig.1 the wall of the tube plays a role in preventing gas entering.


We may post some dependent claims at a later moment.


Looking forward to your comments,


All blog threads allow anyone to add comments and already have a lot of valuable, interesting and sometimes surprising discussions between many candidates who posted their comments as well as tutors resulted from those.Any remarks, (different) opinions and questions as are welcome! Please post your contribution as comments to this blog, so everybody can paticipate in and benefit from the discussion/ explanation.


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 02-03-2016 14:56"), whereas using your real name or even a pseudonym (nick-name) is more personal, more interesting and makes a more attractive conversation.

Jelle, Nico, Sander

Wednesday, March 02, 2016 A-Electricity/Mechanics 2016: 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?

How many marks do you expect to have scored?

What is your expectation of the pass rate and the average score?

How did this year's paper compare to the 2013, 2014 and 2015 papers (assuming your practiced those)

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, in all three languages here (English [available], French and German).

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

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 28-03-2016 11:05"), whereas using your real name or a pseudonym 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!

Sander, Jelle, Nico

Thursday, February 26, 2015 Paper A Electricity/Mechanics

Here then a first attempt at an independent claim of the A 2015 (English, French, German).

Dependent claims may follow after we've done part of the B exam.

Usually many different formulations are acceptable.

Looking forward to your comments.

Jelle and Nico.

Click "read more" for the claim.