European Union: The Great (British) European Patent Attorney

Before Patent Attorneys can represent clients before the European Patent Office (EPO), they must demonstrate their knowledge and professional skills by passing the rigorous European Qualifying Exam (EQE).

This year's EQE results again demonstrate the high level of skills and the quality of training in this country, as UK candidates outperformed their French and German counterparts by considerable margins across all papers. The pass rate of 62% achieved in Paper D — the legal paper — highlights why the UK's European Patent Attorneys are respected throughout the world for their ability to deal with complex and challenging legal matters.

2018 pass rates (%)

As EQEs can be sat in the official languages of the EPO — French, German and English — this outperformance cannot be attributed to a language advantage for UK candidates.

Stephen Jones, the President of the Chartered Institute of Patent Attorneys, welcomed the results, commenting: "The excellent performance of UK candidates in the EQE is a clear indication of the first-class service that clients of the UK's European Patent Attorneys can expect to receive."

The EPO is a non-EU institution and will not be affected by Brexit. Post-Brexit, our clients can continue to rely on our European patent attorneys to provide them with an exceptional service at the EPO.

We're very proud of the efforts of our UK trainees who've sat exams this year (well done Dr Jenny Smith, Dr Elizabeth Hynes and Dr Paul Dakers!) — and hope this high pass rate is a trend that will continue.

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