Information on the enrolment for A, B, C and D papers at the EQEs 2025 and 2026 - effects of introduction of New EQE

Today, the Examination Secretariat published a Notice with information on the enrolment for the EQEs 2025 and 2026.


Good luck to all EQE 2024 main exam and Pre-Exam candidates!

  


We wish all candidates that will sit one or more EQE papers in the next two weeks good luck / bonne chance / gute Fahrt!

Our EQE blogs will be open for your comments and opinions w.r.t. papers ABand D main exam and the Pre-Exam paper immediately after the respective exam. We aim to post our (provisional) answers to the various papers in separate blog posts shortly after we have received copies of the exam papers. 

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 a breach of the exam regulations, instructions to the candidates, code of conducts, etc (see, e.g.,  EQE website, MyEQE, and anyemails from the EQE secretariat).

If you experience any technical difficulties during the exam, despite having tested all in advance and having participated in the technical tests, and want to file a complaint concerning the conduct of the exam: Be reminded that candidates wishing to lodge a complaint concerning the conduct of the exam (pursuant to point I.8. of the Instructions to candidates concerning the conduct of the examination) must do so at the latest by the end of the day on which the paper concerned takes place (pursuant said point I,.8), by filling in the dedicated form on the EPO website. The respective complaints forms are only available until 23:59 CET of the date of the paper concerned.
(Note that you may have more time to file complaints in relation to a main exam paper, as today, 1 March 2024, the EQE Online section on the EQE webpage says "Candidates wishing to lodge a complaint pursuant to point I.8. of the Instructions to candidates concerning the conduct of the examination must do so at the latest by the end of the day on which the last examination paper takes place (15 March 2024, 23:59 CET)", which is different from what 
point I.8. of the Instructions to candidates concerning the conduct of the examination dd December 2023, available on the same webpage, says: "Candidates wishing to lodge a complaint concerning the conduct of the examination 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 made available by the Examination Secretariat.")

First New EQE exam announced: Foundation 2025!

The date for the first New EQE exam, Foundation 2025, has been announced today on the EQE website!

Foundation 2025 will be on Friday, 21.03.2025.

For our courses: see our EQE webpages (Foundation courses here)

Please feel invited to post your comments on our new Foundation blog (here).

REE for New EQE adopted by Admin Council (Updated 29/2/2024: IPREE for New EQE published)


This Thursday, 14 December 2023, the Administrative Council of the EPO adopted, unanimously, the new "Regulation on the European qualifying examination for professional representatives" (REE) for the New EQE (CA/D 25/23). The Implementing Regulations thereto are expected to be adapted by the Supervisory Board of the EQE in the coming week(s). The new REE enters into forms on 1 January 2025 and will supersede those of 2009. The new REE, together with the IPREE, contains details transitional provisions.

EQE 2024 will still be conducted under the current provisions, i.e., with a Pre-Exam and papers A, B, C and D.

The new papers of the New EQE will be gradually introduced as of 2025 (Art. 27 REE):
- a new Foundation paper in 2025,
- new Main exam papers M1 and M2 in 2026, and
- new Main exam papers M3 and M4 in 2027.

The EQEs of 2025 and 2026 will also still comprise the current A, B, C and D papers for those candidates eligible for those papers and wanting to take those (unless they have already enrolled for a New EQE paper, in which case they need to continue in the New EQE system).

For the current EQE, sitting the Pre-Exam requires a 2-year full-time supervised training period for patent attorney trainees (" including taking part in a wide range of activities pertaining to European patent applications or European patents") and 3 years for EPO examiners, and sitting the A, B, C and D papers requires 3-year full-time supervised training for patent attorney trainees and 4 yrs for examiners.
For the New EQE, the required training periods are the same for patent attorney trainees and for EPO examiners (Art. 11 REE):

- the new Foundation paper requires at least 1 yr of full-time supervised training,
- the new Main exam papers M1 and M2 requires 2 yrs of full-time supervised training, and
- the new Main exam papers M3 and M4 requires 3 yrs of full-time supervised training.

DeltaPatents will provide Foundation Integrated & Foundation Distance Learning courses to allow candidate to prepare thoroughly for the the legal part as well as the claims part of the Foundation paper of 2025 (see below).

EQE 2024: results will be available in July 2024

Yesterday, the Examination Board published a notice "EQE 2024: Publication of results" on the EQE website reading:


FYI: Art. 48(2) UPCA provides: "Parties may alternatively be represented by European Patent Attorneys who are entitled to act as professional representatives before the European Patent Office pursuant to Article 134 of the EPC and who have appropriate qualifications such as a European Patent Litigation Certificate." The direct relation to the availability of the results from the EQE is not clear to me, as entitlement to act as professional representative does not depend on the passing of the EQE as such, but to the entry on the list of representatives - which must still be requested after passing (here).

Dates for EQE 2025 published

The dates for EQE 2025 have been published on the EQE website (notice of 20 July 2023):

The time schedule is similar as that of EQE 2024 and 2023, with the papers in the sequence D-A-B-C-Pre-Exam, and again showing at least one day in between successive main exam papers. It seems likely that the exam will again use WiseFlow and -for the main exam- the FlowLock editor/browser.

The published schedule provides for papers Pre-Exam, A, B, C and D, so it seems to be an EQE of the current format. 

EQE 2024 exam schedule now available

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

Please feel invited to post to our blogs for the respective papers if you wish to comment on the EQE 2024 schedule: