Posted by All Information Here on Thursday, October 2, 2014
Our patent office, yesterday,
notified the dates for the upcoming patent agent examination. The next qualifying examination for patent agents will be held on 4th and and 5th May 2013 at Kolkata, Mumbai, Chennai, New Delhi and Nagpur.
Based on the DIPP notification issued after the cases of Anvita Singh (discussed
here), and Renu Rampal (discussed
here), the weightage for viva is 25% of the weightage given to the written examination.
Our patent office has also clearly described the pattern of the upcoming examination.
Paper – I will consist of two parts, A and B. Part A will again consist of two parts, A1 and A2 and all questions will be compulsory. Part A1, (30 marks), will have 15 multiple choice questions of two marks each. Each question will have a up to a maximum of six choices and a maximum of two correct choices. Part A2, (10 marks), will have 10 true / false type questions of one mark each. Part B will consist of 8 subjective type questions and the candidates will be required to attempt any 6 out of the 8 questions.
Because of the nature of Paper I, we suggest that candidates study the black letter law - (act and rules) thoroughly.
Paper – II will also consist of two parts, A and B. Part-A (of 40 marks), will consist of 6 questions of 10 marks each and the candidate will be required to attempt any 4 questions. The questions will relate
to drafting and interpretation of patent specifications and other documents required to be submitted under the Act and Rules. Part-B, (of 60 marks), will consist of parts B1 and B2. B1 will be compulsory and will consist of 1 question relating to drafting of claims and abstract from a given description of an invention.
Part B2 will consist of 2 questions and the candidates will be required to attempt any 1 question. Out of the two questions, one question will relate to general engineering and the other question will relate to field of chemistry/life sciences.
For Paper -II we suggest that all candidates look at existing granted patents, office action, file history etc. available from the patent office website.
For viva-voce, we suggest that candidates brush up on their own domain knowledge - For example - if someone is from the chemistry background - they should be able to answer basic questions from the chemistry domain. For candidates, who are from B.Sc. Mathematics background - they should be able to answer questions related to the use of mathematics in patents, and so on.
Candidates who wish to apply for the examination may visit the patent office
website between 11
th February 2013and 11th March 2013 and apply online. Candidates will be required to enter the details into the online system and take a printout of the application form. The application form along with the
necessary enclosures and examination fee should reach the patent office (CG Office ; Mumbai) on or before 25 March 2013.
For further information, candidates may send queries to patentagentexam[dot]ipo[at]nic[dot]in
Last year, I had created an invitation only
website for helping candidates prepare for the Paper II of the patent agent examination. I am making that site accessible to all those who want to access it. We at Spicyip, wish all candidates the best of luck in the preparation of, and taking the upcoming examination.