Dates for the next Patskills courses


I am pleased to inform you that dates and details of the next Patskills Training for Qualification as European Patent Attorney courses are now available on www.patskills.ch. 


The dates are:
A - Drafting : 8-9 November 2012
B - Reply to EPO : 10 November 2012
C - Opposition : 30 Nov - 1 Dec 2012
C - Opposition overflow : 14-15 December 2012
D - Legal : 11-12 January 2013

Enrollment for the EQE pre-exam 2013

Complete applications to enroll for the 2013 EQE pre-exam must be received by the Examination Secretariat no later than 11 June 2012.

If you are interested in sitting the 2013 pre-exam but haven't yet enrolled, hurry or you'll have to wait another year. Likewise for any of your trainees.

Two weeks ago I attended the annual meeting of CEIPI tutors. The announcement of the very high pass rate in the EQE pre-exam caused some surprise. There was a 99% pass rate with 72% of candidates achieving a mark of 80-100/100.

Does this mean that the exam was too easy and failed to achieve its declared objective of filtering out unprepared candidates,? Or does it mean that well-prepared candidates can achieve a high pass rate if confronted with questions that are set at a realistic level?
 
In any event, the pre-exam had a subsidiary objective of improving the quality of results in the main EQE by encouraging candidates to begin their exam preparations earlier. In my opinion, it is very likely that this subsidiary objective will be reached. To what extent, we should find out in the next couple of years.