This is a guide on how I passed the United States Patent Bar before the coronavirus pandemic occurred.
Think this exam is challenging? Consider first the 7% pass rate of Japan’s semi-equivalent of the Patent Bar to become a licensed benrishi.
Like many other exams, the Patent Bar is just another paper chase for a thinly walled old-school profession... Accept the existential hazing as a mere common vicissitude of ordinary society and pass it.
3 years prior experience working in patent law, one general intellectual property law school course, and one patent law school course. Those with no prior background in patent law should prepare more than I did.
I targeted 150 45-minute pomodoros with 10-minute breaks. Focus Journal was a decent way of keeping track. I tracked my hours using an automatically calculating Google-equivalent of an excel sheet. I ultimately studied for a total of 166 45-minute pomodoros.
I targeted 400 practice questions, as recommended, completing a total of 698 practice questions.
I used a PLI course and binder from 2016. The online license renews and updates until you pass. The binder is a physical copy and doesn’t. PLI doesn’t provide you with digital copy, but you might be able to find a copy of it online. The online course is useful for its instructional videos that summarize and explain the binder, but mostly is very useful for its hundreds of practice questions and the prior 2003 etc Patent Bar exams, where every answer is explained.
If there is an equivalently credible practice question bank available, then I recommend that as an alternative to supplement the binder because PLI is expensive.
Otherwise, I recommend getting a PLI course and splitting it with somebody else.
Life happens, so give yourself extra cushion in terms of time allocated to study for the exam. I provided myself with 1/3 more time than my best predicted self would need to successfully pass, given no force majeure. When life happened (as it does), I knew I could take some time off from studies without unnecessary stress.
Overall I allocated three weeks where my ideal self would study eight 45-minute pomodoros per day.
Settle up everything in your personal life for a firm foundation of stability. End unstable relationships and friendships. Ensure financial stability.
Stability = predictability = predictably passing.
Using PLI’s binder, I built my own outlines. I targeted the sections that are tested the most heavily, and then moved on from there. I outlined pretty heavily for the heavily tested sections, barely outlining for the remaining sections besides taking minor notes. As I did this, I also built my blanket outline, the skeleton of the MPEP.
Here are the outlines that I built:
2. MPEP 2100 (Patentability, focus on MPEP).docx
2. MPEP 2100 (Patentable Subject Matter).docx
MPEP 700 (Examination of Applications).docx
MPEP 600 (Parts, Form and Content of Application).docx
MPEP 200 (Types, Cross-Noting, Status of Apps, Priority for Domestic and Foreign Apps).docx