To be registered as a patent agent or patent lawyer in the United States, a person must pass the United States Patent and Trademark registration (USPTO) check, officially called Checking for Registration to Practice in Prior Case United States Patent and Trademark Office and is known informally as a patent bar .
Video USPTO registration examination
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The person passing the registration exam and claiming to be a patent agent before entering into the state bar is allowed to change the registration to a patent lawyer after supplying the USPTO with proof of good standing in state or territory bars.
Maps USPTO registration examination
The tested material
This examination is intended to measure the applicant's intimacy with USPTO procedures, ethical rules, federal laws, and regulations. Applicants are permitted to use electronic copies of the Patent Inspection Procedure Manual (MPEP) in computer-based inspections and copies of MPEP paper in pencil and paper tests but no other material. A large number of questions are usually related to the preparation and handling of appropriate US patent applications or international applications.
Structure
The test is a 100-question test, six hours, multiple choice. The test is divided into morning and evening parts. Applicants are given 3 hours to complete 50 questions in the morning, and 3 more hours to complete 50 questions in the afternoon.
The exam contains 10 beta questions that are not taken into account in the final exam score, but there is no way to know which of the 100 questions among these 10 unquestioned questions. The required score to pass is 70%, or 63 correct from 90 storied questions. Statistics from the examination conducted from 9 June 2005 to 17 October 2006 showed that 58.2% of the 4,165 candidates passed the exam (based on MPEP 8th Edition, Revised 2).
Prior to June 2004, the USPTO enrollment exam was a pencil and paper test provided in about 15 locations across the country. The USPTO has moved to a computer-based examination that can be taken on any business day at any of the several hundred Prometric locations across the country. Examples of computerized exams are available to provide feelings about how the exam is administered, but this "practice exam" does not contain a sample question. After an applicant is approved for the exam, he has 90 days to schedule an exam date with Prometric. Pencil and paper tests are still offered once a year in the USPTO office.
Prior exams are available through the USPTO Registration and Discipline Office, both in print format at cost, and online at no cost.
Prerequisites
General
The USPTO requires all applicants (or agents or attorneys) to fulfill three requirements: (1) good moral character, (2) legal, scientific and technical qualifications necessary to provide valuable services, and (3) competence to advise and assist the applicant's patents in the presentation and prosecution of patent applications. The registration exam primarily addresses the third requirement. The second requirement usually meets a bachelor's degree in a recognized technical field; The USPTO calls this "Category A" eligibility. These fields include biology, chemistry, computer science, most engineering disciplines, and physics. Two other options are available to meet the second requirement: have sufficient semester hours of a particular science subject ("Category B") or pass the Technical Elementary exam ("C Category"). Note that the requirements for Category B eligibility are much heavier than for Category A - not only candidates must provide official college transcripts, they must provide a copy of the official course description, along with the year for which the course is taken, for each course used to establish eligibility for exam.
Degrees in philosophical art (such as pure mathematics) or social sciences (such as sociology) are not sufficient to meet the technical training requirements. However, the requirements of scientific and technical training can be fulfilled by submitting evidence of 40 semester hours of graduate courses in the above fields, 8 of which must consist of two consecutive semesters of physics for scientists and engineers with a laboratory or two consecutive general semesters of chemistry with laboratory. It means successively that two courses cover one curriculum, such as physics 101 and 102. All 40 semester hours can be completed in a community college and should not result in a bachelor's degree. All courses must be applicable to a degree in a subject. For example, physics with calculus will be calculated, while physics without calculus, usually taken by other majors, will not. Other Category B qualifications allow for a person without an undergraduate degree in a registered field to also indicate he or she has 24 semester hours in physics for physics majors (called Option 1), 32 semester hours in chemistry, physics and biology (called Option 2) or 30 semester hours in chemistry for chemical majors.
Aliens
Non-US. citizens who wish to practice before the USPTO in their own country may also register by meeting the same requirements if individuals are registered to practice before the patent office in their country of residence AND if their country has a reciprocal agreement with the US At present, only one country, have such an agreement; while the Canadian Intellectual Property Office does not recognize this reciprocity. In addition, the USPTO makes no attempt to verify; the requirements are only on paper and have no power. The registration is granted for the limited purpose of representing the applicant's patent from the country of individual residence prior to the USPTO. Non-US. citizens living in the United States, having a valid non-immigrant work visa, and already employed by a patent company in the patent prosecution role (often referred to as a "technical specialist") may take the exam to obtain a limited confession to act as a patent agent for applications handled through their employer. The Law on Aliens, 37 C.F.R. 11.6 (c), is not enforced by the ASPTO Registration and Discipline Office (OED). However, USPTO employees must be US citizens and this is verified in background checks; patent agents who wish to work for the USPTO must first become US citizens.
Pass rates
Pass rates for examinations have ranged from 37 percent to 70 percent over the past few years. The results of the USPTO registration check reported by the fiscal year are available online.
See also
- Enter the bar in the United States
- Representations before the European Patent Office
References
External links
- The USPTO's Office of Registration and Discipline (including "Exam Resources")
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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