CIPA welcomes Government plans to unlock finance for IP-rich businesses
News
13 July 2026
The results for the 2021 EQE have been released and continue to show that the high standard of training in the United Kingdom is delivering world-leading European patent attorneys, year-on-year.
The European Qualifying Examination (EQE) consists of five papers and tests whether candidates have the knowledge and ability to represent clients before the European Patent Office (EPO).
As in previous years, this year’s results show that UK candidates are outperforming their counterparts in Germany and France significantly across the EQE papers. You can find full details in the table below.
CIPA President Alicia Instone said:
CIPA is once again thrilled to congratulate the UK candidates on having accomplished another very successful result in this year’s EQEs.
“CIPA and its members provide an exceptional quality of training in the UK, which is shown continuously in the high-level results the candidates receive.”
This trend of the UK leading the EQE results stretches back many years. See below for UK, German and French results since 2015 (there were no exams in 2020 due to the COVID-19 outbreak):
2021 pass rates %
Country A (Drafting) B (Amendment) C (Opposition) D (Law)
UK 84 74 70 95
DE 77 58 44 85
FR 75 54 44 89
2019 pass rates %
Country A (Drafting) B (Amendment) C (Opposition) D (Law)
UK 91 63 66 76
DE 78 49 46 46
FR 79 66 61 51
2018 pass rate %
Country A (Drafting) B (Amendment) C (Opposition) D (Law)
UK 61 84 71 62
DE 50 73 44 25
FR 49 70 40 35
2017 pass rate %
Country A (Drafting) B (Amendment) C (Opposition) D (Law)
UK 77 85 70 74
DE 51 71 49 32
FR 56 68 59 38
2016 pass rate %
Country A A2 B B2 C D
UK 63 75 89 86 56 76
DE 53 64 63 58 41 41
FR 65 60 71 63 33 52
2015 pass rate %
Country A A2 B B2 C D
UK 73 65 73 88 59 80
DE 62 57 66 87 37 49
FR 66 55 58 90 49 67
Date Published: 13 September 2021
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