Fireball Patents

My FREE printable PCT Applicants Guide for EQE2017

Don’t use the official printable version of the PCT Applicants Guide for the Pre- and Main Exams. It is 1800 pages because it includes all annexes. Much of it will never be required at the exam because it falls outside the syllabus. Candidates already have enough to carry – the ban on electronic devices during the EQE means that many will print out the whole thing to take with them.


Based upon the EQE Regulations, past D papers and comments from the D Examination Committee, I have produced this abbreviated version to lighten the load and to save a few trees. This is the most you should ever need. In addition, I have added several useful overviews from the WIPO and EPO websites which can speed up answering questions during the exam.


My book of about 850 pages is available free of charge to download here (Google Drive). Please feel free to pass on the links to anyone who needs them.
UPDATE: alternative location to Google Drive is on my website (scroll down to EQE training)


UPDATE: A version in French made by my colleague tutor Gregory Baque is available here. He also has a printable National Law which has been updated to the situation on 31 Dec 2016.


To save paper when printing, it is designed to be printed with 2 pages on each side of an A4.



For the states  that are most relevant for the EQE, all information from the Applicants Guide annexes is included. These states are:
• The top 15 RO’s in 2015 and the top 10 DO/EO’s in 2015 (WIPO statistics)
• All EPC states, extension states and validation states
• All ISA’a, SISA’s, IPEA’s, and all Intergovernmental Organizations


For the rest of the PCT states, only basic information is included such as Treaty membership, reservations, national entry deadlines etc. The EPO is covered extensively, using information from both the WIPO and the EPO websites.


For the other four largest patent offices – CN, JP, KR, US, the complete summary of entry requirements and national procedure from the national chapter is provided (but the fees and forms have been removed as they are too detailed for the EQE).


This reference is split into 3 parts:  I – General II – International III – National

Changes compared to last year’s version:
• Scope limited from top 21 RO’s to top 15
• Scope limited from top 20 DO/EO’s to top 20
• Removed (I) Applicants that qualify for 75% fee reduction for ES fees
• Removed (I) Requirements DO/EO’s for deposits of biological material – AG: Annex L 
• Removed (II) FAQ – PCT changes due to the America Invents Act (AIA)
• Added (III) EPO Fees for International Applications (from EPO website)
Good luck at the EQE,
Pete Pollard

PCT guru

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11 responses to “My FREE printable PCT Applicants Guide for EQE2017”

  1. Anonymous Avatar
    Anonymous

    Thank you very much for the update, and for the list of changes. This way I can just change a few pages from last year's print-out for the pre-EQE and save a tree or two!Katie

    Reply
  2. Pete Pollard Avatar
    Pete Pollard

    Thanks Katie. I don't think a few pages will do it as I compile the book completely every year, but if you look at the bottom of the WIPO annexes, you can see from the date whether they have been changed since last year.

    Reply
  3. Anonymous Avatar
    Anonymous

    Thanks Pete for the new version!You removed the America Invents Act FAQ, so you believe that this topic is not relevant anymore in the EQE?/Andreas

    Reply
  4. Pete Pollard Avatar
    Pete Pollard

    No – they are only going to ask the new situation, which is fully documented now in all the reference books. For PCT, it only affected the formalities (who may be indicated as inventor). For the US, they may expect you to know that, for example, there are procedures to challenge US patents after grant at the USPTO, but no details on the procedure is expected. This may get you up to 1/2 point on DII.

    Reply
  5. Anonymous Avatar
    Anonymous

    Hi.Firstly, thank you for this tool. When I click on the link, it says page not found. Is the site down?Thanks

    Reply
  6. Anonymous Avatar
    Anonymous

    I had good use for this during the pre-examination this week. Thanks for preparing! A few comments below on the format. Consider them as suggestions and feedback; naturally, getting all this for free, I'm in no position to make any demands. :)1) The light blue color of the hyperlinks from the WIPO web pages comes off as slightly too bright to be comfortably readable when printed out, especially when the text is small (see for example page 31 of Part I). Any chance you could change this to a darker blue color? I realize this might involve manually hacking the HTML pages or style sheets…2) I prefer to print this with one page per side of the paper (still managing to fit everything into one ring binder), as the text is small enough already. Sometimes, for example in the international phase introduction, an odd page in the PDF corresponds to an even page in the original document. This messes up the margins in that an odd (right) page gets a small margin to the left and an even (left) page gets a small margin to the right, right where holes are punched for the binder, which makes it hard to read the cross references. Would you be able to make sure, in a future version, that an odd page in the PDF matches an odd page in the original document?Thanks again! Looking forward to using the next version (I do hope you will make one!) for the main exam next year.

    Reply
  7. Unknown Avatar
    Unknown

    This comment has been removed by the author.

    Reply
  8. Anonymous Avatar
    Anonymous

    Are you planning to compile this for EQE 2018? Since the cut-off date was moved to 31 October, the WIPO EQE special edition is already out:http://www.wipo.int/pct/en/eqe/index.htmlThanks in advance!

    Reply
  9. Pete Pollard Avatar
    Pete Pollard

    Yes. I am about half way through. It should be available at the end of November.

    Reply
  10. Pete Pollard Avatar
    Pete Pollard

    Thanks for the feedback.When making the latest version (see separate post), I looked at the issues you mentioned. 1) I could not find an easy way to do this. It might help if the pages are printed black and white2) In general, all new sections start on an odd page, so most of them should match. Where possible, I try and put everything in the middle for the pages I make myself. You could also try shrinking the pages slightly when printing.

    Reply
  11. Pete Pollard Avatar
    Pete Pollard

    Newest version is available – see post from yesterday & today

    Reply

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