REPRESENTATION
CEIPI/epi
Basic training in European patent law
1. Past European Qualifying Examinations have shown that many candidates, whilst knowledgeable on questions of detail, lack a firm grasp of the basics of the EPC and its practical application. For some years now CEIPI and EPI have been working together to devise basic training schemes in European patent law which not only meet candidates' needs but are also feasible.
2. Joint CEIPI/EPI basic training courses in European patent law take about two years, starting in the autumn of each year.
3. Courses able to accommodate a total of more than 350 students are currently available in the following 25 cities:
AT: Vienna
BE: Antwerp, Brussels
CH: Basel, Lausanne, Zurich
DE: Düsseldorf, Cologne/Leverkusen, Ludwigshafen, Munich,
Stuttgart
DK: Copenhagen
FR: Lyon, Paris
GB: London, Manchester
IE: Dublin
IT: Milan
NL: The Hague, Eindhoven, Geleen
SE: Göteborg, Malmö, Stockholm, Västeras
4. The scheme, which is intended inter alia to help candidates to pass the European Qualifying Examination, lasts two years and is designed to start shortly after the future patent specialist has begun training with a professional representative or patent department. Following a reorganisation of the syllabus, students may now also be admitted to most courses after the first year.
5. The basic training courses will take the form of private study supervised by local tutors, all experienced specialists in European patent law, who approximately twenty evenings a year for three hours at a time will discuss topics and cases previously prepared by participants, answer questions and set further topics for study.
6. To accustom students at an early stage to giving quick answers to points of law (Paper D of the Qualifying Examination) and enable them to monitor their performance, it is planned to present them every six months with about 12 - 17 such points from the subjects covered by the syllabus, to be answered under examination conditions.
7. The list of topics to be covered will encompass the whole European Qualifying Examination syllabus and indicate the reference material to be used. Comprehensive, mostly unpublished EPO and CEIPI training material and documentation from other sources analysing and summarising EPO Board of Appeal decisions will also be made available.
8. Tutors meet for two days every year at Strasbourg University to discuss in the light of experience how best to structure the courses.
9. On completion of the basic course, candidates are expected to round off their training and prepare for the Qualifying Examination through private study. Special courses are also available, such as the EPI tutorials (OJ EPO 1993, 86) and the one-week CEIPI seminars in Strasbourg (see notice in OJ EPO 11/1992) and a variety of national courses.
Readers are reminded that the basic training course does not dispense with the need for further intensive study for the Qualifying Examination; it provides candidates with no more than a broad grounding in European patent law and its international ramifications.
10. It is planned to hold courses each year beginning in September or October at various centres in the Contracting States if there is a minimum of three participants in each case and suitable tutors are available. The cost will be FRF 6 500 per person per year (FRF 13 000 for the two-year course).
11. To enable the next round of courses to be organised in good
time, those interested are asked to contact CEIPI as soon as possible and in any event not later than 1 June 1993 at the following address (from which further details can also be obtained).
The CEIPI Office may give you any further information you need.
Mme Behrens et Mme Blott, CEIPI
Université Robert Schuman,
Place d'Athènes,
F-67000 Strasbourg
Tel.: (88) 61 43 75
Fax: (88) 60 37 10