If you visit the USPTO.gov website then you realize the Patent Bar exam has started testing over the MPEP 9th Edition as of October 4th, 2014. Every test after that date will cover this new version of the MPEP.
What Exactly does That Mean For You as a Test Taker?
If you haven’t started preparing for the exam it really shouldn’t mean anything to you other than the fact that you need to make sure your prep materials are updated for this new MPEP edition. The test isn’t likely to be any more difficult than it was in the past. If anything, it may be a little easier as you’ll have fewer Exam Notices to study from now that Edition 9 is the currently tested edition.
If you had been preparing with Edition 8, Revision 9 materials (the previously tested version of the MPEP) then you need a plan on transitioning to this new material. We offer helpful tips and even email support on how to make this transition for member’s of our Patent Bar Review course.
Essentially, if you made it through chapter 600 of the MPEP with the old materials it’s worth the time to review the new changes in the Edition 9 MPEP Summary of Changes for chapters 100 – 600 (or use our Edition 9 Supplement if you’re enrolled in our review course) and also view the layout of those chapters in the Edition 9 MPEP (to help you with MPEP look-up the day of the exam). Once you’ve gotten caught up you should use the new edition (MPEP 9th Edition) or hopefully study materials based on that new edition going forward.
The changes to the MPEP between the older version and Edition 9 are fairly significant. This new version includes all the America Invents Act (AIA) material within it. The chapters that have changed include; 100, 200, 300, 400, 500, 600, 700, 1100, 1200, 1400, 1500, 1600, 2100, 2200, 2600, 2700 and the addition of a new chapter, 2800.
Although most of the material is the same, its new location within the MPEP is important for you. That’s because you will have access to the MPEP on test day and you should include using it as part of your study strategy.
How Have We Prepared For This New Edition With Our Course?
Our program consists of 3 major steps.
Basic Patent Training Gets You Up-to-Speed on Patent Law
The first is to learn the fundamentals of patent law with our Basic Patent Training course. This basic course was completely updated after the 9th Edition MPEP was released. So it is 100% updated for the current material. Every module, every video, and every quiz question reflects the currently tested material.
Guidebook to Patent Law Chapters Focus on the Tested Material
The second step to our program revolves around learning the details of the MPEP. For this step you’ll use the Guidebooks to Patent Law along with our Workbook Quizzes.
As you can imagine, this is the step that required some serious updating to be up-to-date with the currently tested Edition 9 MPEP. Although 99% of the tested material stays the same from the previous version (8th Edition, Revision 9) from this new edition, the entire organization of the MPEP is different.
Where the USPTO was covering over a dozen Exam Notices that consisted of the America Invents Act (AIA) material prior to October 4th, we’re now down to just a handful of Exam Notices. All that AIA material was incorporated into the right place in the MPEP in the 9th Edition.
This actually makes looking up the material on test day much easier because now instead of flipping through the Exam Notices, you have it all incorporated into the MPEP.
In order to make our Guidebooks 100% current, we’ve updated every chapter that is impacted by the new edition. And we’ve not just cut and pasted bits and pieces, but for many of these chapters, we started over.
The work was intense, it took about 2 months to basically review all the updated chapters of the MPEP in Edition 9. We cut out about 70% of the extraneous material and have organized it in a way that makes sense. We also transferred over the summaries from our previous materials (and are currently creating more). All the same headings and subheadings have been preserved from the MPEP to our Guidebooks so if you learn where the material is within our course, you’ll know exactly where it is within the MPEP on test day.
Workbook Quizzes Help You Actively Learn the Material
In addition to the Guidebooks, step II of our course consists of answering questions from our Workbook Quizzes. We feel this is the best way to prepare for the exam. Instead of just passively reading, listening, or watching a video on this complex material, you’re actively working with it.
The quizzes consist of a few different question types. The first are the short answer questions. For these, you should give it your best try and come up with an answer, then learn from the feedback.
The main quizzes in our Workbooks are the true/false and fill-in-the-blank answer style questions. These are actually scored (and we track your scores for you in our online Scorekeeper application). That way you can see which chapters you’re mastering. We completely re-created the quizzes for all the impacted chapters.
In addition to re-creating the quizzes to make sure everything is current, we added in even more questions. Although these questions are not the same question style as those you’ll see on test day, they will help you learn the material and get you ready to tackle the difficult exam questions.
If you use the Guidebooks to look-up the topics in the quizzes you’ll learn the material (and be far more likely to retain it compared to simply reading the material). In addition, you’ll know exactly where that material is located within the MPEP for test day look-up.
We actually have well over 1,000 questions like these created for you. It’s a lot, but if you just answer 50 a day, you’ll get through it in a few weeks and be much more prepared for the exam than someone who just passively listens to a lecture.
Again, everything is 100% current for the new edition of the MPEP.
PatExam Engine Questions Simulates Test-Day Exam
The third and final step in our program consists of taking simulated exam questions.
For this step we provide you with old questions from previous tests in addition to new questions we have created for you based on new material. These new questions are very similar to the question-style on the actual exam.
All the old questions that don’t apply any longer have been deleted. These haven’t changed with the new edition 9 MPEP, however we will continue to add in new questions based on feedback from our clients and our knowledge of what the USPTO likes to test.
Study Planners Keep You On Track
As you can see we have completely revised our course based on the new edition of the MPEP. In addition, we offer detailed study planners that have also been updated for the new edition.
For instance, chapter 2800 is new to the 9th Edition MPEP so we have had to add in time to learn this material. We also broke down some of the bigger, most heavily tested chapters into a few appendices.
Currently, we cover the following 6 appendices in our Guidebooks:
- Appendix I – Prior Art Rejections
- Appendix II – 35 U.S.C. 102 Rejections
- Appendix III – 35 U.S.C. 103 Rejections
- Appendix IV – Disqualify Prior Art
- Appendix V – 35 U.S.C. 112 Specification Requirements
- Appendix VI – Ethics (only minimally tested)
The first five appendices essentially pull material out of the heavily tested chapter 700 and chapter 2100. We spend a lot of time covering this material and have created hundreds of Workbook Quiz questions on this material alone as it’s expected you will see many questions from these topics on your exam.
The study plans have been completely re-created to adjust for these changes to our materials. We’ve also added in a 4-week and an 8-week detailed planner to complement our 3, 6, 9, and 12 month study plans and help our clients with a short deadline.
In addition to this massive update of the materials, we are expecting to add in even more tools to help you prepare for the Patent Bar. It’s very important to us that we help you succeed in passing this difficult test so you can get started with a career in patent law as quickly as possible.