March 22, 2025 Foundation Paper 2025 - our provisional answers to the Claim Analysis Part (F-2)

 First of all, a big thank you to the candidates who send us the copies of the printable parts and of their answers (which included the questions)! There were no benchmarkers for F this year, and the paper wasn't published straight way, so we had to rely on you to get the paper. Thanks for helping out!

Roel, Joeri and I looked into the case of the claim analysis part. These are our answers (including explanation):

March 21, 2025 Foundation paper 2025 - our answers to F-1, legal part

Our (provisional) answers to the legal part of the Foundation 2025 paper are given below. (Our answers to the claims analysis part will be posted at a later moment, probably tomorrow, 22 March.)

 

As the sequence of the questions, as well as the sequence of statements/elements within a question, may have been different between different candidates, we numbered the questions and the statements for easy reference.

 

During the exam, candidates had access to the EPO Legal Text pages, so including the full EPC Articles and Rules, Guidelines (GL/EPO, GL/PCT-EPO), as well as to the PCT Articles and Rules and the PCT Applicant's Guide in the eGuide format. Access to the EPO text was to the live versions, so to the versions in force on 21 March 2025 (so not the version of 31.10.2024 acc REE/IPEE). The PCT texts were in the version in force on 31 October 2024.

 

Candidates could access the exam in all languages, English, French and German: the language of the question could be selected. All statements were given in all three languages.

 

Please feel invited to comment and share your thoughts!

 

March 21, 2025 Foundation 2025: first impressions?

To all who sat the F-paper today:

What are your first impressions with respect to this very first F-paper? Any general or specific comments?

 

What did you think about the level of the questions, was that suitable for a candidate having one year of work experience? Were the questions easier than in the pre-exams? Or at the same level, or even harder in any way? Any difference in this respect between the leqal questions part and the claim analysis part?

 

Did you have enough time? Did you experience time pressure? Did you have enough time to double check your answers?

 

Were the question formats as you expected? Any unusual ones? Was it clear what you had to do to answer, e.g. whether you had the option to tick multiple boxes or that you had to select a single box? Were the questions clearly formulated? Were the answer options clearly formulated? How did you experience the fact that you have different questions formats and a different number of subquestions per question?

 

In the legal part, F-1, could you answer the questions directly from the EPC/PCT, or did you need multiple steps in your thinking to get to the answer? How was the balance between EPC and PCT? Were there any unexpected topics? Any of the more “exotic” topics that you may not have seen (yet) in your daily work?

 

In the claim analysis part, F-2, how was the amount time you needed for reading description and prior art? Were there any unexpected topics? Any of the more “exotic” topics that you may not have seen (yet) in your daily work?

 

Did you take the exam from your home or your office? Or somewhere else? How did that work for you?

 

Did you experience any technical difficulties during the exam? How and how fast were they resolved? Did you use the widget to contact the invigilator? 

 

Please be reminded that, if you wish to lodge a complaint pursuant to point I.8. of the Instructions to Candidates concerning the conduct of the examination , you must do so at the latest by the end of the day on which the Foundation paper took place (so by 21.03.2025, 23:59 CET at the latest), by filling in the dedicated form on the EQE website (section "EQE online") and submitting that before midnight. (See also Amended Rule 19(3) IPREE as in force since 5 Feb 2025). 

The Complaint form concerning the conduct of the examination (Paper F 2025) is (only) available on 21.03.2025, 10:00 - 23:59, CET. 

The Complaint form guides you with detailed fields along the required information:

• Of course you need to give your name and EQE regnr.
• Indicate whether the complaint may relate to Part F-1, Part F-2 or both parts. 
• You need to indicate whether you have you followed the instructions / recommendations from Wiseflow, whether you practiced in the "EQE-Compendium" area in WISEflow, whether you  participated in either of the EQE technical tests (23.01.2025 or 18.02.2025), and whether you sat the EQE in the same environment and using the same equipment as for the technical test(s)?
• If your complaint relates to technical issues, you need to provide details about your setup. You need to describe the issue you experienced and how this affected your participation in the examination as detailed as possible. 
• You need to describe the non-technical issue if you wish to raise it as part of your complaint. Complaints cannot be considered if based on sickness during the exam.
• You will also need to specify what compensation you request. 
• Finally, you need to certify that the information given above is, to the best of your knowledge, true and correct.

The paper and our answers

We aim to post the core our (provisional) answer shortly after the exam in separate blog posts (one for F-1 legal questions and one for F-2 claim analysis), as soon as possible after we have received a copy of the paper, preferably in all three languages. Should you have a copy of at least a part of the paper (e.g printable parts of F-2, or maybe your downloaded answer also contains the questions or a part thereof), please send it to any of our tutors or to training@deltapatents.com.

Please be reminded that you can view and print/download  copy of your exam answer after the exam, via the eye below the "1. Paper"-icon in the bottom left part of the flow window of the respective flow. (It may not be available immediately after the official end of the (part of the) paper, but only 30-60 minutes later.) Apart from the pre-printable parts, the paper itself cannot be downloaded.

 

 

We look forward to your comments!

Comments are welcome in any official EPO language, not just English. So, comments in German and French are also very welcome!

 

Please do not post your comments anonymously - it is allowed, but it makes responding more difficult and rather clumsy ("Dear Mr/Mrs/Ms Anonymous of 20-03-2025 15:03"), whereas using your real name or a pseudonym is more personal, more interesting and makes a more attractive conversation. You do not need to log in or make an account - it is OK to just put your (nick) name at the end of your post.

 

Please post your comments as to first impressions and general remarks to this blog.
Please post responses to our answer (as soon as available) to the separate blog post with our answer. Thanks!

March 21, 2025 Our Paper F 2025 blog will open for comments after the exam (21 March 2025, 15:00)

Good luck with paper F 2025! The very first Foundation paper, and the first paper of the New EQE ever!

Our EQE blogs will be open for your comments and opinions w.r.t. papers D, A, B, C and F shortly after the respective exams. We aim to post our (provisional) answers to the various papers shortly after we have received a copy of the respective exam paper.

Do not post any comments as to the merits of the answers of a certain exam paper/flow on the blogs while an exam/flow is still ongoing. Also, do not post the invigilator password or anything else that may be considered the breach of the exam regulations, instructions to the candidates, code of conducts, etc (see, e.g.,  EQE homepage, EQE notices, EQE online website, MyEQE, and the emails from the EQE secretariat).

All candidates, as well as tutors who helped candidates prepare for EQE 2025, are invited to contribute to the discussions on our EQE blogs! You can post your comments in English, French or German. You are invited to post your comments under your real name, but it is also possible to use a nickname if you wish to hide your identify.

The DeltaPatents team

NB: you can’t comment to this blog post; comments will be accepted from a new blog post as of 15:00

August 05, 2024 Schedule for Foundation paper at EQE 2025 available

The Schedule for EQE 2025 has been made available on the EPO website last week (dated 31 Juy 2024), including the schedule for the Foundation paper on 21 March 2025:

July 27, 2024 EQE Mock F paper available

The EQE has made a Mock Foundation paper available last week.

See the message from the EQE Examination Board dated 23 July 2024 on the EQE website (https://link.epo.org/elearning/EQE_mock_paper_F_EN), which provides:

July 12, 2024 Reminder: Registered candidates may enrol for paper F from 8 July to 23 September 2024.

Please be reminded that:

• The first foundation paper F will be held on 21 March 2025.
  
• Candidates who wish to enrol for paper F must already have registered by 28 May 2024.
  
• Registered candidates may enrol for paper F from 8 July to 23 September 2024 via the European Qualification and Certification Portal (EQC portal).
  
• Only enrol to the Foundation paper F if you want to continue in the New EQE system.
  
• Do not enrol to the Foundation paper if you intend to sit paper A, B, C or D of the "Old" EQE in 2026! See Rule 25(7) New REE: " Once candidates have enrolled for a paper under this Regulation, they can no longer enrol for a paper under the Regulation of 2009".
• Also be reminded that to sit paper A, B, C or D in 2026, no Pre-Exam PASS is required, whereas a Pre-Exam PASS is required for A, B, C or D in 2025 (see here).

Refer to the EQE website, OJ 2024, A26 and the European Qualification and Certification Portal (EQC Portal) and our earlier blog posts on F.

Enjoy your preparation (also see the references at the end of this earlier blog, courses and material)!

Good luck with your Foundation paper in 2025!