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13 July 2026
The 2019 European Qualifying Examination (EQE) results have been released and they continue to show that year-on-year, the high standard of training in the United Kingdom is delivering world-leading European patent attorneys.
The rigorous EQE consists of five papers and determines whether candidates have the knowledge and ability to represent clients before the European Patent Office (EPO).
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.
The most substantial differences in this year’s results were for paper D, which the EPO says aims to “assess candidates’ ability to answer legal questions and to draft legal assessments”. The pass rate for UK candidates was an impressive 76% (which is up from 62% last year) and was considerably higher than the German candidates at a 46% pass rate and the French candidates at a 51% pass rate.
CIPA President Julia Florence said:
CIPA is delighted to congratulate our UK candidates on having once again achieved a high level of success in the EQEs.
“Many of these candidates will also have recently passed or be preparing for the UK patent exams. This dual qualification, following intensive training, enables UK European patent attorneys to provide an excellent, well-rounded service to clients worldwide. The high quality of training in the UK, provided by CIPA members and supported by CIPA, continues to be a key factor in UK candidates consistently performing so well in the EQEs.”
This trend of the UK leading the EQE results stretches back many years. See below for UK, German and French results since 2015:
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: 24 July, 2019
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