Draft Amendment to Patent Agent Exam Regulations – Calculus Cancelled

In the draft regulation announcement area of the Ministry of Examination, I saw a piece of news worthy of being glad for “half,” which is that our government has finally decided to cancel one exam item in the original Patent Agent Exam: “Calculus.” Although I still hope the government can cancel physics and chemistry subjects together, this is at least a start of progress — however, the total number of exam subjects has instead increased.

As for whether this draft amendment will be implemented in the 102nd year (2013) Patent Exam, it is actually quite difficult to determine. Because our country usually implements new laws in July, in this way the time almost overlaps with the Patent Agent Exam which is only conducted in August. If it is rashly announced to be implemented in 102, it is easy to make the candidates a bit flustered.

The following is the original announcement of the draft amendment. Those interested can take their time to read it.

Or you can directly skip to the modified provisions below that I have specially highlighted with color:

Draft Amendment to Article 6 of the Regulations for the Higher Examination for Patent Agents of Professional and Technical Personnel

• Drafting Agency: Ministry of Examination (No. 1-1, Shiyuan Rd., Wenshan Dist., Taipei City)
• Drafting Basis: Article 14 of the Professional and Technical Personnel Examination Act
• Announcement Date: November 30, 2012
• Subject: Announcement of one copy of the “Draft Amendment to Article 6 of the Regulations for the Higher Examination for Patent Agents of Professional and Technical Personnel,” please provide comments from all sectors of society during the preview period.
• Description:
  1. Amend the names of some examination subjects in this examination, and add one examination subject to meet the needs of professional and practical core capabilities.
  2. Amend the question types of some examination subjects in this examination to appropriately increase the breadth of the test.

General Description of the Draft Amendment to Article 6 of the Regulations for the Higher Examination for Patent Agents of Professional and Technical Personnel: The Regulations for the Higher Examination for Patent Agents of Professional and Technical Personnel were formulated and promulgated on January 2, 2008, and subsequently amended twice, the last amendment being on April 30, 2012. Since this examination was included in the national examination in 2008, all sectors have been paying close attention to whether the exam subjects and professional core capabilities are closely integrated. To improve this examination system, the Ministry of Examination invited representatives from industry, government, and academia on February 14 and August 5, 2011, to conduct a comprehensive review of the examination subjects, question types, examination qualifications, and passing methods, and decided to include them in the relevant amended articles of these Regulations. Subsequently, the Ministry of Examination drafted an amendment to these examination regulations and submitted it to the Examination Yuan for deliberation. After two small group review meetings by the Examination Yuan, the review was completed and submitted to the 185th meeting of the 11th Examination Yuan on April 26, 2012, for deliberation and passage. Its main points of amendment include appropriately relaxing examination qualifications, adding that graduates of relevant colleges, departments, majors, groups, institutes, and programs such as management and business can take this examination; changing the passing method to taking the top 10% of the total number of people who attended all selected subjects of the six examination subjects as passing, to appropriately increase the number of passing people and respond to market manpower needs. In addition, according to the resolution attached to the review report, the Ministry of Examination was requested to study and amend the exam subjects of this examination according to the opinions put forward by the members at the two review meetings, and report to the Yuan for deliberation as soon as possible. For the sake of prudence, the Ministry of Examination, based on the resolution attached to the aforementioned review report, held a meeting on November 20, 2012, to discuss matters related to amending the exam subjects of this examination, and confirmed the amendment to some exam subjects and question types of this examination to appropriately increase the breadth of the test and meet the needs of professional and practical core capabilities.

Comparison Table of Amended Provisions of Article 6 of the Regulations for the Higher Examination for Patent Agents of Professional and Technical Personnel

Amended Provisions

Article 6, The examination subjects for this examination are:

1. Patent Regulations.
2. Patent Administrative Remedy Regulations. (Formerly Administrative Procedure Act and Administrative Litigation Act)
3. Patent Examination Guidelines and Practice.
4. General Physics and General Chemistry. (Calculus Deleted)
5. Professional English or Professional Japanese (Choose one).
6. Engineering Mechanics or Biotechnology or Electronics or Physical Chemistry or Basic Design or Computer Architecture (Choose one).
7. Patent Agency Practice. (New Subject)

The question types for the examination subjects in the preceding paragraph are as follows: 1. Patent Regulations, Patent Administrative Remedy Regulations, Patent Examination Guidelines and Practice, Professional English, Professional Japanese adopt a hybrid type of essay-style and test-style questions. 2. General Physics and General Chemistry adopt test-style questions. 3. Engineering Mechanics, Biotechnology, Electronics, Physical Chemistry, Basic Design, Computer Architecture, Patent Agency Practice adopt essay-style questions.

Current Provisions

Article 6, The examination subjects for this examination are:

1. Patent Regulations.
2. Administrative Procedure Act and Administrative Litigation Act.
3. Patent Examination Guidelines and Patent Application Practice.
4. Calculus, General Physics and General Chemistry.
5. Professional English or Professional Japanese (Choose one).
6. Engineering Mechanics or Biotechnology or Electronics or Physical Chemistry or Basic Design or Computer Architecture (Choose one).

The question types for the examination subjects in the preceding paragraph, except for Professional English and Professional Japanese which adopt a hybrid type of essay-style and test-style questions, all other examination subjects adopt essay-style questions.

Description

• According to the resolutions of the two meetings held by the Ministry of Examination on February 14 and August 5, 2011, to discuss matters related to amending the higher examination system for patent agents of professional and technical personnel, and confirmed by the meeting held by the Ministry of Examination on November 20, 2012, to discuss matters related to amending the examination subjects for the higher examination for patent agents of professional and technical personnel, the names of some examination subjects are amended and one examination subject is added. Among them, “Administrative Procedure Act and Administrative Litigation Act” is amended to “Patent Administrative Remedy Regulations”; “Patent Examination Guidelines and Patent Application Practice” is amended to “Patent Examination Guidelines and Practice”; “Calculus, General Physics and General Chemistry” is amended to “General Physics and General Chemistry”; “Patent Agency Practice” is added to meet the needs of professional and practical core capabilities.
• In addition, according to the aforementioned meeting resolutions, examination subjects such as “Patent Regulations,” “Patent Administrative Remedy Regulations,” “Patent Examination Guidelines and Practice,” “Professional English,” and “Professional Japanese” adopt a hybrid of essay-style and test-style questions; “General Physics and General Chemistry” adopt test-style questions to appropriately increase the breadth of the test; other examination subjects adopt essay-style questions.
• After the amendment of examination subjects, the Ministry of Examination will cooperate to amend and publish the proposition outline to facilitate the preparation of candidates.

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While removing Calculus, this draft also adds “Patent Agency Practice” and adjusts some legal subject names to be more focused on patent practice.