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[03:23] schestowitz http://ipkitten.blogspot.com/2023/11/should-you-need-at-least-4-year.html?showComment=1699437776902#c4178608388449566213
[03:23] schestowitz To me the most obvious solution to better qualified EP attorneys seems to be mandatory university studies in European Patent Law."
Speaking as someone who did one of the masters courses in IP law presently on offer in Europe, I am sceptical that it would do much to improve the profession. Certainly employers did not seem to credit it in selecting candidates for interviews - indeed one very senior partner said they did no
[03:23] schestowitz t credit the course at all - though I did eventually find a slot.
[03:23] schestowitz What is going on at the epi? There are discussions in secret about the future with no formal opportunities for members and the rest of the profession to comment or influence. They are also drawing up a new REE for the EQE behind closed doors with punitive transitional provisions for partially-qualified candidates. In both cases, they are tipping the balance in favor of certain countries, and raising the bar for future candidates.
[03:23] schestowitz Why are they pulling up the drawbridge? Are they already anticipating the rapid decline of the European Patent Attorney due to AI?
[03:23] schestowitz With regards to whether this is actually a serious proposal from epi, according to the letter from CIPA: "In May this year, CIPA Council received a report that the Council of the epi had passed a motion in favour of raising the threshold technical qualification for entry to the European Qualifying Examination and, therefore, registration as a European Patent Attorney, to a Masters level degree or equivalent. Council was further
[03:23] schestowitz advised that this will require an amendment to the Regulation on the European qualifying examination for professional representatives (REE) and that the EPO would be considering this in due course."
Perhaps someone from CIPA can provide more details?
[03:23] schestowitz Just a few thoughts:
1. I see no evidence that the requirement for a four year degree is a serious proposal from EPI.
2. I see no evidence that patent monopoly quality is put at risk because there is no requirement for a four year degree. Plenty of Doctors of Philosophy who are crap patent monopoly attorneys. Plenty of Bachelors of Science are good patent monopoly attorneys.
3. I see no evidence that requiring a four yea
[03:23] schestowitz r degree would have a material impact on entrants into the profession. Of the large EPC states, the UK is an outlier in offering three year degrees. Nevertheless, almost all current entrants into the UK patent monopoly profession already have at least four years of technical university education. Many, if not the majority, already have PhDs, integrated undergraduate Masters degrees or standalone postgraduate Masters degrees. Very few o
[03:23] schestowitz nly have a three year Bachelor's degree.
4. This is a storm in a tea cup; the latest example of navel-gazing patent monopoly attorneys obsessed by trivia. See previous tea cup-sized storms on: adaptation of the description, oral proceedings by videoconference, application of ST.26 to divisional applications. All are banal issues which, while potentially frustrating and unwarranted, matter little to our clients and have been blown
[03:23] schestowitz out of all proportion by people with too much time on their hands.
[03:23] schestowitz I've heard a lot of talk over the years about "tips and tricks" for the EQE. I've trained a lot of graduates who have become successful patent monopoly attorneys. Those that understand the job and develop the skills to do it well pass the exams in my experience.
[03:23] schestowitz That sounds a lot like the Hagen course for Patentanwalt training in Germany.
https://www.fernuni-hagen.de/kurthaertel/studiengaenge/patent/index.shtml
This kind of structured training for EPAs might be a good thing in general, but it doesn't seem that it would raise the pass rate in the EQE. In 2023, 41% of German candidates passed the EQE, whereas other countries had significantly more successful candidates (UK 68%, NL 67%
[03:23] schestowitz , IE 62%). To be fair, the Hagen course is focussed on related areas of law, rather than patent monopoly law per se.
The pass rate in the German national patent monopoly attorney examination is about 95% and that might be evidence for the success of courses such as the Hagen course. If we're really interested in raising the quality of EPAs maybe we should be looking at how successful exam candidates are trained right across the E
[03:23] schestowitz PC countries and aim to share that best practice, rather than introducing arbitrary academic requirements.
[03:23] schestowitz To me the most obvious solution to better qualified EP attorneys seems to be mandatory university studies in European Patent Law. A one or two year remote learning program could guarantee a high education level. Exam participants would be better prepared and the pass rate would rise. National attorney qualification programs might benefit from that, too.
[03:23] schestowitz http://ipkitten.blogspot.com/2023/11/should-you-need-at-least-4-year.html?showComment=1699385303429#c4558869541040473105
[03:23] schestowitz According to the CIPA letter 3.7 million of the 5 ...
According to the CIPA letter 3.7 million of the 5 million STEM students across the EPC countries are studying for Bachelors degrees and 1 in 5 trainee patent monopoly attorneys in the UK has a Bachelors degree. Seem like significant numbers to me.[03:23] -TechBytesBot/#techbytes-ipkitten.blogspot.com | Should you need at least a 4-year scientific degree to be a patent attorney? - The IPKat [03:23] -TechBytesBot/#techbytes-www.fernuni-hagen.de | Dokument existiert nicht (mehr) - FernUniversitt in Hagen [03:24] -TechBytesBot/#techbytes-ipkitten.blogspot.com | Should you need at least a 4-year scientific degree to be a patent attorney? - The IPKat ● Nov 09 [04:13] schestowitz
[04:13] schestowitz[04:13] schestowitzSalutations from the ReactOS project team! In previous posts, we talked about the ReactOS releasing process and the development status of the project, as well as the hiring of our long-term developer Herms Blusca-Mato (HBelusca). We are making an effort to publish at least 3 newsletters per year, depending on how the development workflow goes. In this newsletter we will highlight some of the cont [04:13] schestowitz ributions made by project developers and contributors, as well as future plans and headlines.
[04:13] schestowitz