EQE - exam advice, e-EQE environment

The update of our EPC.App reference book to legal status of 1st April 2025 is completed. Key changes since the last update in November were the new EPO Guidelines as of April 2025, amendments to Rules 36, 39 and 160 in accordance with an EU sanction against Russia, changes of terminology in 50 EPC Rules for adoption to gender-neutral language, updated ADA regulations introducing automatic orders for renewal fees only or all fees except these, the abolishment of web form filing and smartcards, new referral G 2/24, and validation of EP patents in Lao PDR.

In the self-editable online version of our EPC commentary, all changes of the update are rolled-out automatically, while personal user annotations from before the update are retained. They can be exported into a customized printable PDF offline version, which may further be ordered as colored paperback via the integrated print-on-demand service. As always, we also released this 14th edition in English and German with same content.

EQE is now a qualification lottery – it is only fair that you can buy more tickets😉. Preparation => Passing is now completely disconnected for Papers B / C. So please sign the Petition to Increase the Frequency of the EQE.

A “Fit to Practice” European Patent Attorney = mother language: Eng/Fre/Ger,

Download up-to-date exam calendars and Instructions to Candidates with the link. Please pass on quickly to any EQE candidates – the D exam will be held on Tu 11 Mar 2025.

Brief outline of the case
The candidate sat all papers ABCD in 2024.
Only the marks received in paper A, 42, were such that the Examination Board had decided the candidate did not pass the EQE 2024.
The candidate appealed this decision.
The DBA decided to set the decision under appeal aside,

The candidate appealed the decision of the Examining Board allotting her only 42 marks for Paper B 2024, which meant that she has failed the EQE.

The candidate’s objection

The candidate argued that it was not clear from the Examiner’s Report how the 30 marks available according to the Examiner’s Report for establishing IS for claim 1 were to be obtained at all,