EQE 2017 updates are coming thick and fast today.

An email is now doing the rounds from the EQE which states that: “We are glad to inform you that this [an increase in seating capacity at Walsall] will now allow all interested candidates to sit the EQE at Walsall Football Club, Banks’s Stadium, Bescot Crescent, Walsall, West Midlands, WS1 4SA, U.K”. The text of this email is reproduced at the bottom of this post.

“I’m so glad I’m going to Walsall” was probably not a phrase many would have thought they’d be saying at the start of the year, but 2016 has been a strange year….

IPcopy is happy that every UK candidate will now have the option of taking the EQE 2017 in the UK but does wonder how this situation arose in the first place. All candidates will be sitting the exams at the Walsall Football Club so either more people are being housed in the same room or an extra conference room has been booked (the WFC venue has 17 conference rooms). All of which begs the question “why wasn’t this sorted out earlier?”

We hope that the Walsall-Munich-Walsall wobble didn’t result in too many people cancelling their original bookings in Walsall and booking flights/hotels to/in Munich.

We wish everyone the best in next year’s exams.

IPcopy also notes that Holdens Brewery is only 6 miles from the venue if anyone is thinking of organising a post exam celebration…..

IPcopy 25 November 2016

TEXT OF EMAIL FROM EQE

Dear candidate,

A few days ago we sent you an email informing you that you had been allocated the examination centre in Munich for the EQE 2017 due to the limitation of seats at the EQE centre in Walsall, UK. As a consequence, we have received many questions from candidates regarding this limitation.

After re-assessment of the situation by CIPA, the UK-IPO and CIPA have now managed to make more space available and to increase the overall seating capacity at Walsall.

We are glad to inform you that this will now allow all interested candidates to sit the EQE at Walsall Football Club, Banks’s Stadium, Bescot Crescent, Walsall, West Midlands, WS1 4SA, U.K.

Under these circumstances, we would kindly ask you to reply to this email by Monday, 28 November 10:00 am (UK time) at the latest to inform the Examination Secretariat as to whether you wish to:

Option 1

• maintain your earlier request to sit the EQE at Walsall Football Club

or

Option 2

• sit in Munich M.O.C. despite the fact that more seats are now available at Walsall Football club.

No answer means that you wish to maintain your original request to sit in Walsall.

You will understand that it will take some time to process all answers. An email confirming centre changes will be sent to those concerned on Monday, 5 December 2016 at the latest.

We are aware it would have been preferable to have had this information from the outset. It should however be noted that the EPO’s role in this respect is limited to responding to the requests received from national IP authorities. We would therefore take this opportunity to explain the situation more clearly and point out the following:

As a rule, the EQE is organised at the EPO sites: Munich, The Hague and Berlin. On the request of national IP authorities, the EQE can be held at other centres designated by the respective national IP authority, provided a venue is made available and local organisational support is given by the national IP authority.

Based on this scheme, the EQE is held in 8 further countries, whilst 28 of the EPO’s member states do not host an EQE centre. All candidates from these 28 countries sit the EQE in Munich. It is thus a privilege for a candidate to be able to sit the EQE in his home country, owing to a great extent to the initiative of the national IP authority and its co-operation with the EPO.

For the UK, the venue was chosen by CIPA on behalf of the UK-IPO, who requested that the EQE take place at Walsall Football Club. Overall, 182 pre-examination candidates and 194 main examination candidates had requested to sit the EQE in Walsall.

The Examination Secretariat