Thursday, January 28, 2021 B paper in e-EQE 2021

The EQE of 2021 will be conducted online (Annoucement). 

Important information was given in “Information on the schedule for the EQE 2021 examination papers” (link) of 2 December 2020 provides. 

The "Information" provides:

General

The EQE 2021 exam schedule is now available. Candidates are advised that this document may be subject to minor changes as testing continues.

The EQE 2021 will take place online using LockDown Browser. On examination days, candidates are advised to log on to the online examination system's internet platform at least 20 minutes before the start of the relevant paper. Information on how to register and log on to the online examination system will be communicated in due course.

 

Paper B – Thursday 4 March 2021

Paper B will have the same syllabus and character as before.  

Paper B lasts 3.5 hours.
[Note from the editor: this corresponds to the 3 hours from Rule 24(1) IPREE plus the additional 30 minutes from the Decision of the Supervisory Board of 17 November 2016]

Candidates will be allowed to print the prior-art documents and the drawing(s), but none of the following: the description and claims of the application, the EPO communication, the client's letter and the amended claims. The documents allowed for printing will be made available approximately ten minutes before the start of the examination.

Part         Content       Time             CET time
Paper B   Full paper   3.5 hours     9.30-13.00 hrs

Candidates may take unscheduled breaks. Further instructions relating to taking unscheduled breaks will be communicated at a later stage. It should be noted, however, that the exam clock will continue to run during unscheduled breaks, i.e. the examination will not be stopped.

FAQ on e-EQE, incl. Paper B aspects

The FAQ provides additional information for the e-EQE in general, as well as for paper B specifically:

Updated 01/2021 - How can I indicate text in paper B which is deleted or added?

If you wish to indicate changes you should proceed as follows:

Deletions should be indicated with square brackets “[ ]”.

Added text should be shown by underlining the respective text.

Note from the blog editor: 

the editor of WiseFlow/LockDown browser does not provide for strike-through.So,if you wish to indicate deletions, you have to use an alternative method: use square brackets (as also commonly used in various jurisdictions). Thus:

   A car vehicle comprising at least two seats a driver seat and a passenger seat.

shall be indicated as:

   A [car] vehicle comprising [at least two seats] a driver seat and a passenger seat.   

Exam platform and Mocks

The exam platform is available since late December, and a first set of exam papers (earlier EQE papers) was made available as Mock 1 paper to allow candidates to familiarize with the system (see here and our blog post here).

To allow candidates to test the system also close to the real examination conditions, a second mock (Mock 2) is planned for the week of 1 to 5 February 2021. (see here and our blog post here).

A FAQ provides additional information for the e-EQE in general.

Also note the information given in the e-EQE tutorials/ information sessions (recording available on the e-EQE website); see our blog post here for some highlights of the session of 14 January 2021.

Paper B details

Mock 1 (see comments to our blog on Mock 1) gives an example as to what is printable and what not:

• the complete description and claim set of the application as filed is only online as part of the pdf of the paper, and cannot be printed;
• the drawings of application are available in advance for printing, and are also part of the pdf of the exam paper
• the communication from the EPO is only online  as part of the pdf of the paper, and cannot be printed;
• all prior is available in advance for printing, and is also part of the pdf of the exam paper
• the clients letter and amended claims only online as part of the pdf of the paper, and cannot be printed

You will thus need to read the description, claims as filed, clients letter, and proposed amended claims from the screen, in the pdf viewer.

Unfortunately, you cannot annotate the pdf. So you can only annotate the paper printouts of the prior art and the drawings, but not the description, claims and communication.
Tip: So, if you wish to annotate, you will need to use a workaround: you can copy the relevant parts of the B paper in your answer (and reformat those parts), and then sue the boldface, underline and italics formatting options of the editor. (Refer to our DI and II blogs for tips.)

While you are working on the paper, you can open the pdf of the exam paper in multiple tabs of the Lockdeown browser. So, you can have the description in one tab, the claims as filed in another, the claims as proposed in again another, and the communication in again another, ... that reduces the amount of browsing and allow you to work more efficiently.
Warning: It has been reported that the browser may crash if you open too many tabs - the limit seem to be at 9 in Mock 1. It is recommended to check in Mock 2 what the limit is, so you do not run into a crash in the exam. According to the information at the webinar/information session of 14 January, the issue is under investigation, but it is not know whether it will be solved before the e-EQE.

You can search in the pdf. You can copy parts of the pdf into your answer (but you will need to reformat thereafter, as it cuts all lines at about 30 characters).

Tip: In Mock 1, the search functionality in the pdfs of paper A and B does not work properly: when you search for a term, you get a search result that does not match the search term; however, if you look carefully, you will see that the term you looked for is exactly one line below the search result - so, if you want to use searching in the pdfs of A and B in Mock 1, always check the line below, at the same horizontal position! The search works properly in C and D, so no issues are to be expected in Mock 2 and in the real e-EQE.

When you write your answer, use the formatting options of the editor to your advantage!

You can add headings, which have a larger font size, and which appear in a Table of Contents in the right menu (See DII blog for details). Unfortunately, you cannot click on the entries in the ToC to use it as a navigation pane, as you can e.g. in Word. But you get a bit of an overview as to where you discuss which topics of you add headers like Art.123(2), novelty, etc or objection 1.1, objection 1.2, ... 

Use underlining (e.g., for additions made to claims), boldface and italics to structure your answer. if you wish to indicate deletions, you cannot use strike-through, but you can use square brackets (refer to the FAQ entry cited above). 

Also refer to our other blog posts on the FAQ (e.g., here) and on other aspects of the e-EQE (on our EQE blog page, or on the blogs for the specific papers).

Please feel invited to provide your comments. 

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