How I passed the October 2002 patent bar exam on the first try:

Patent Bar Exam / Patent Agent Exam Resource Help Page

Click here to download the PDF version  of the patent bar exam preparation help page (11 pages) (requires Adobe Acrobat Reader)

Patent bar preparation materials:

1. I used only Professor Irving Kayton's patent bar preparation materials in preparing for the patent agent exam.

2. I floundered somewhat in trying to find the right technique to study for the patent bar exam.  I had a hard time becoming motivated and psyched up about study for the patent bar exam.  At least for me, I found Kayton's treatise materials to be rather dry.  Also, I am the kind of person that learns best with a live or videotaped lecture (as I think I am a lot more audiovisually oriented -- definitely helps me if I can see what is being said, for whatever reason) -- i.e., I am not a book learner.  So, after a month of getting through Chapters 1 through 4 in volume 1 of Patent Practice (Kayton's treatise), I decided to spend not an insignificant sum of money on Kayton's 2002 video course.  In my opinion, this made the difference between my passing and failing the patent bar exam.  (Also, when I was reading Chapters 1 through 4 in volume 1, I made an outline of the substantive material I was reading.  But, I found this to be a true waste of time. (Even though I always made my own outlines for law school exams, I just found the material just way too much to outline and way too time consuming.))  Instead, I made an outline of typical incorrect answers and correct answers (to aid me in memorizing the substantive material for the patent bar exam).

3. I spent September 24, 2002 until about 11PM on October 15, 2002 seriously preparing for the exam.  (I received the Kayton videotapes on September 23, 2002.)  (Before that, as I said above, it was pure drudgery, and I only had read Chapters 1 through 4 in Volume 1 of Patent Practice (and, there are 8 volumes to Patent Practice!)

4. I spent about 8 to 14 hours a day studying (I studied at home only; I did not attend any of Kayton's live lecture sessions).  In the 2002 Kayton Video Course, there are 26 videotapes.  I viewed roughly one videotape each day.  While I was watching the videotape, I made notes on the numerous lecture charts that are included with the Kayton videotape course.  Then, I worked the multiple choice questions in Volumes 7 & 8 after I had finished the lectures.  I estimate that I spent about 360 hours preparing for the patent bar exam (from the end of September until mid-October) over the period of 3.5 weeks.  (I have read that some people spend 2 months or more, so I was awfully concerned as to whether I would be prepared enough.  But, I was intensely studying, so this was a bit relieving.)  I found that Professor Kayton's patent bar exam tips on the first video of his Video Course was quintessential to my passing the patent bar exam.  He gives such tips as bringing Number 2 pencils into the examination room and using one pencil for every 10 questions, advising against using mechanical pencils--stating that these apparently don't mark well on the multiple choice answer sheets that are computer graded.  Well, I even did that (in spite of, during my whole college & graduate school life, I had used mechanical pencils to bubble in my multiple choice tests).  I also read through his treatise, Patent Practice, from cover to cover.  I only found what I read marginally beneficial when it came to answering the questions and answers in Volumes 7 and 8 of Patent Practice.  And, as I said above, I am really not the type to retain much from reading (I retain much more--to a very high degree--when I listen & watch, instead).  There are some chapters that were 50, 100, or 200 pages long.  Realizing that I am not that much of a hard core reader, I basically skimmed through all of these pages, eventually allotting 3 hours for 50 pages, whether I felt that it was sinking in or not (because the videotapes plus the questions & answers in Patent Practice were the primary ways in which I learned the material to pass the patent bar exam).

Working through the past USPTO questions & answers:

I worked through each and every past patent bar exam question & answer which Kayton had in his Volumes 7 & 8 (past USPTO Q&As).  Sometimes, Kayton had a really good explanation for why the correct answer choice was what he designated it to be.  Other times, it was very brief and I had to look up the relevant section of the USC, MPEP, or CFR.  At any rate, I always struggled to understand that section of the USC, MPEP, or CFR -- plus, I highlighted each section of the USC, MPEP, or CFR which was mentioned in the answers (the section number plus the relevant section of the text containing the answer).  (This came in handy for the exam.)  [But, of course, you do not have time to look everything up and you must know certain answers cold.]

Stuff to bring to the patent bar exam:

5. I contemplated quite a bit about what I should actually physically bring with me to the patent bar exam.  I had to contend with actually hauling all of my stuff on the bus and having to walk about 8 blocks to the exam site.  Kayton lecturers stated that bringing in the 6 substantive volumes of Patent Practice would be a good idea as well as the numerous lecture charts (there are several hundred sheets).  Additionally, absolutely required MPEP which you must bring with you to the examination site (because that's what the patent bar examination primarily tests you on (there are some regulations from Title 37 of the CFR and Title 35 of the USC as well)).  The most current edition of the MPEP is the 8th edition.  Kayton's version consists of 4 volumes.  I never read through the entire MPEP to prepare for the patent bar exam -- some people recommend this.  During the exam, I looked at the index for the first time to the MPEP and at first had to struggle for a few minutes in determining how the index is structured (not exactly intuitive, in my opinion).  There is a Subject Index for MPEP Chapters alphabetical index in Kayton's MPEP Volume 4, 8th edition -- this is what I used to look up answers I did not know.  Anyway, the only things that I brought to the patent bar exam were MPEP 8th edition, 35 USC 102 (Kayton had reproduced these in Patent Practice and following his advice, I took this along), a list of patent filing fees for fiscal year 2003 (which are the same as 2002 according to the USPTO website), and a Post-It note with effective dates of amendments to 35 USC 104 (NAFTA, WTO countries), listed what the Plant Variety Protection Act (Vegetable Soup Act) covered (tuber and sexually reproduce (seed) plants), maximum amount of time for secrecy orders, listed the various patent terms over the past years, and extensions of time an applicant gets for PTO delays with regard to responding to office actions.  (Nothing on this Post-It note proved to be helpful at all for the patent bar exam!  Disappointing.)  In terms of physically carrying all of these things, I took my backpack and a shoulder bag to stick all of my materials into -- it was ultra-heavy and it most certainly felt like death carrying these huge books to the exam for several city blocks to the exam site.

Lack of sleep & no time for food or coffee?  No problem!  Adrenaline to the rescue.

6. Amazingly, there was some all night road construction going on where I live.  These fellows decided to start up late at night and so up until 3AM, I felt and heard strong vibrations that rocked my house.  It was absolutely horrible.  I could only sleep from 3AM until 6AM -- 3 hours!  But, perhaps it was the whole adrenaline thing going on, or whatever -- I felt wide awake as I was rushing to the exam site in downtown Pittsburgh.  (I got there just on time -- I'm not (anymore) one of those people that arrives habitually early so as not to be late.  But, I usually get in right on the dot -- and this happened to me on this day, fortunately.)

The trek to the patent bar exam site -- Pittsburgh Federal Building:

7. In spite of my preparing late and not getting enough sleep on the eve before the exam (only 3 hours -- I really feel like a wreck usually after only getting this amount of sleep), I felt really raring to go when October 16th arrived.  I did not feel nervous at all at the exam site (for whatever reason) (maybe it's because I feel pretty old and lack the extra energy to be nervous and jittery).  Fortunately, the guy that I sat next to at the exam was nice, we struck up a conversation several times.  And, upon my entering the exam room, this person and I found out that there were not enough tables -- it was a bit comical for the both of us to actually lift and carry a huge table to the exam room for our own purposes-- anyway, the comic relief did wonders for me.  And, I felt at ease.  I felt wide awake, but relaxed (amazing, given that during that time period I was totally a latte addict).

Patent bar exam technique and ad hoc juggling:

8. I did not practice in beforehand any old patent bar exams.  (I just did not have the time.  I only reviewed all substantive material in Kayton's course once.)  So, in the exam room, I used the following technique in answering the multiple choice questions: 1) read the question, and mark an answer right away after thinking about it for up to 3 minutes per question -- I did not stress about not knowing the answer to a question....I just moved on to the next one (because you are not penalized for the incorrect answer, you might run out of time if you don't answer anything, and you might give up points you might have gotten just by mere chance if you run out of time not having answered some questions!).  I spent 1.5 hours on the morning section going through the questions once.  I then spent the rest of the time, up until the very last second that time was called, looking up the answers to the questions that I did not know (or thought I knew, but was not sure).  (Obviously, while I was making my first pass through the questions, I marked the questions in my question booklet that I did not know or was unsure of (there were a lot -- about 8 questions that I absolutely did not know in the morning section, and maybe 12 questions that I was unsure of but I thought I knew).)  I found the morning section of the October 2002 exam quite easy.  But, the afternoon section was quite difficult for me.  There were about 25 questions that I had to look up the answer to, but I repeated the same technique as the morning: pass through the questions a first time and then use the remaining time to look up what I did not know.  For the afternoon section, I spent about 2 hours answering the questions and the remaining hour to look up the questions I did not know (here, there were about 23 questions that I was pretty unsure of, but I looked up the answers to all in the MPEP).  All in all, morning and afternoon, there were about 15 questions that I was really unsure of after I did the process of first pass through the questions and then looking up in the MPEP the answer to the questions I did not know.  (One of the questions was: What do you do in case the PTO loses your patent application, and it listed various options dealing with what to include in affidavits, etc. -- I had no clue; this was nowhere in Kayton's materials.  I felt that there were a lot of curveball questions in the afternoon section of the patent bar exam consisting of questions such as these which I thought were fundamentally unfair.  (Incidentally, practically all of the questions were procedural in nature (as opposed to substantive patent law or substantive patent prosecution questions -- again, to my surprise). One other thing I should mention: in my test booklet, for each question that I was unsure of, I wrote down all of the relevant sections of the MPEP that generally related to the subject matter of each question. I also circled my answer in the test booklet and also wrote the letter of the answer next to the question. Furthermore, I wrote down the rationale as to why I thought that MPEP Section XXX led to the answer that I indicated was the correct one on the test booklet. (I really did envision battling it out with the USPTO for a regrade. But this never happened, as I received a passing grade based on what the USPTO figured were the correct answers.)

Taking advantage of the noontime break:

9. I am originally from downtown Pittsburgh and I have worked in downtown Pittsburgh, so I know it pretty much like the back of my hand, especially the area in which the Pittsburgh federal building is located (as my gym is right around the corner from there).  The proctor gave us 1.5 hours for our lunch break!  I had the following agenda to accomplish: 1) buy a watch to keep track of time for the afternoon section of the exam (the exam room did not have a clock, nor were there any time announcements!), which I did at the drugstore on the corner; 2) eat something (as I had not eaten breakfast or anything for that day!) -- so, I got a 6-inch tuna salad sub at Subway; 3) drank a vanilla latte at the coffee shop across the way (Curtain Call); 4) headed to the gym (I brought along my membership card with me, but unfortunately no workout clothes).  Not having brought my workout clothes, I took advantage of the gym's other facilities (they have a sauna, etc.).  When I arrived there, I ran into an old friend of mine who I had not seen in almost two years -- it was definitely relaxing and enjoyable to actually catch up on old times.

When things go wrong (as they naturally do when you least can afford it!):

There was a watch I had which I purchased the spring term of my being a 1L.  But, it had stopped working while I was preparing to go out (dressing and such).  Ugh!  There was no time for me to purchase a replacement watch.  Fortunately, the guy that I sat next to agreed to put his watch in the center of our table so I could refer to it.  I think that this ultimately was a good thing that this freak incident happened.  Because I did not want to look at the watch too much (because it was looking away from my exam paper and I did not want to be accused of cheating), I hurried like heck through the exam questions, making the first pass through.  Because of the 1.5 or 2 hours that I had remaining to look up answers to questions I did not know or was unsure about, I was relaxed (because there was a lot of time remaining), so I could really make sure that the answers were correct -- this gave me some satisfaction and peace of mind.

First time getting lost in Pittsburgh:

Ok, so the patent bar exam ended, and I walked to the bus stop to go home.  I was so incredibly tired and misread the sign on the bus.  I ended up somewhere near Monroeville, but the next bus I caught (by chance -- thank goodness) was one that I could take to my home (well, near it, I had to walk several blocks lugging all of that stuff).  Fortunately, I am familiar with Pittsburgh, so getting lost was not so bad.  But, I found the whole experience really exhausting and felt totally drained for the next two days.  In the interim, I was looking up what the best patent bar exam courses would be for the second time around (I could not decide between the Kayton PTO Examware (as this consists of questions from Volumes 7 & 8 from Patent Practice (my volumes are totally marked up, since I answered all of the questions) or PLI).  (Incidentally, just about everyone, except for one or two people, did not have Kayton's patent bar exam materials (I could tell based upon the MPEP that they had out on their desk for reference during the exam).)

December 9, 2002

I did not expect to pass the patent bar exam, especially because I heard from many that it is a difficult exam, because I was rushed in my preparation, because it took me so long to try to focus on adequately preparing for the patent bar exam, because of my lack of sleep, etc.... -- all kinds of reasons.  Also, it was my first try and I have heard that many people have to take it more than once, even four or five times!  Also, I don't do too well on multiple choice exams.  I knew that the results would come in early December, but I did not know that they would arrive this quick.  (I misplaced my Comp ID -- competitor ID number, so I could not look at the preliminary pass list on the USPTO website).  My boyfriend (I am female) picked up my mail for me and I saw the dreaded envelope that was addressed from U.S. Department of Commerce Patent and Trademark Office.  My heart sank and I laughed and said to him -- ha!  I know I failed!  I opened it and I blinked.  I certainly did not expect to see what I thought was seeing: NOTICE OF RESULTS OF October 16, 2002 EXAMINATION (from the General Counsel): "I am pleased to inform you that you attained a passing grade on the examination for registration to practice before the United States Patent and Trademark Office given on October 16, 2002."  (My boyfriend of course verified that I wasn't seeing things!)  This was really unexpected, but I am of course truly relieved.

March 27, 2003

Finally listed on the USPTO patent agent and attorney roster as of March 27, 2003  (they update the roster every Thursday, usually) (6750 active agents & 21412 active attorneys listed on March 27, 2003); received my certificate on March 31, 2003; Reg. No. 53125.

March 31, 2003

Received my certificate on March 31, 2003; Reg. No. 53125, indicating that I have a license to practice patent matters before the United States Patent and Trademark Office (the registration certificate itself is dated February 28, 2003; however, USPTO OED clearly states in its "congratulations you passed" letter that you cannot hold yourself out as a patent agent or attorney until you have received the registration certificate).

April 15, 2003

Admitted to the PA bar, after submitting, in person to the PA Bar Office in Pittsburgh, an original certificate from the PA Board of Law Examiners recommending my admission to the PA bar and also a completed application for admission.  I received 2 certificates of good standing (free of charge for that day, the PA bar office clerk said), one for the purpose of updating the State Bar of CA with my new status as an attorney and another for updating the USPTO with my status change to attorney from agent.

April 16, 2003

I sent off to the USPTO a letter requesting that my status be changed from agent to attorney and also a Certificate of Good Standing from the PA Supreme Court.  I addressed this letter to Shirley Brown at OED.

April 10, 2003 to April 16, 2003

I found out that I passed the PA bar exam through the pabarexam.org website (listing the names of people that passed); got my results packet (containing my scores, application to apply to the PA bar, and other similar information) on April 12, 2003.  I wrote a very lengthy and detailed account about my preparing and taking the exam, the post-exam experience, my passing the exam (with a good enough score to waive into DC -- I probably will do this), and what items you receive in your successful results packet from PABLE (and items you receive from the Bar Office of the PA Bar after you file with them your application for admission to the bar).  This page can be found here: <http://mysite.verizon.net/lkim/pa_bar_exam_experience.html>.

Completed my application for admission to the PA bar form on April 15, 2003.

On April 16, 2003, I contacted USPTO OED and verified that I only needed to submit a letter requesting a change of status from patent agent to patent attorney along with a Certificate of Good Standing (no fee is required).  I addressed the materials to Shirley Brown, Paralegal Specialist at USPTO OED on April 16, 2003 and sent them off.  Soon, my status will be updated from patent agent to patent attorney.

I expect to receive fairly soon a new certificate indicating my being registered with the USPTO as a patent attorney.  The roster should be updated in a similar time frame.

April 23, 2003

The USPTO updates their patent agent and attorney roster every Wednesday or Thursday of each week on their website.  Today, I noticed that my status now reads "Attorney" instead of "Agent."  Very fast for the USPTO.  (I am surprised it only took a week.)  Soon, I should be receiving a new registration certificate (I think) from the USPTO.

May 2, 2003

I finally received a letter from the USPTO stating that my status was changed from patent agent to patent attorney on the USPTO roster.  The letter states that my date of registration as an attorney is April 23, 2003.  I also received the patent attorney registration certificate today.  Pretty fast for the USPTO.

Questions?  E-mail me at lee_kim_usa@yahoo.com

Last modified: 06/10/2004

- During the beginning and middle part of my patent bar exam preparation, I found myself grappling with a lot of "philosophical" / tangential questions.  Some points of patent practice, law, and procedure appeared to be logically inconsistent or otherwise too superficial and I found myself trying to figure out a logical relationship between various concepts, etc.  Like in law school, I realized that the best way to prepare for an exam covering a huge range of material is to give up trying to logically sort through anything and everything and stick with the basics.  For key concepts (e.g., utility, novelty, obviousness, typical patent rejections and objections, etc.), yes, you do need to know basic substantive knowledge (i.e., comprehend what your patent bar course is trying to teach you), but don't try to go digging for the true meaning of things or try to rationalize things too much.  This is an objective exam, not an essay exam, after all.  The USPTO tries to formulate very straight-forward questions since the patent bar exam is a multiple choice exam.  There are so many fundamental concepts (e.g., 35 USC 101, 102, 103, 112, etc.) to know and so many procedural steps to absorb that it would be in your best interest to focus your energy and time on what really counts -- the core stuff that will get you points.  (I would do the same thing for the patent bar exam.  If there is a question which you are truly tripped up on, do not waste too much time on that question.  Pick the best answer based on the information you have in your head and within the MPEP, CFR, or USC and move on!  Otherwise, if you spend too much time on a really perplexing question, you could be giving up easy points that you could have gotten with other, more simple and straightforward questions the USPTO throws at you on the patent bar exam.)

- Looking up answers to questions that you do not know or are uncertain of.

I do not believe that you necessarily need to have a system for looking up answers to questions as they appear on the USPTO patent bar exam.  I only realized that there was an actual index to the MPEP, CFR, and USC a week or so before the patent bar exam.  In my humble opinion, there is no special technique or preparation that you must have coming into the exam insofar as looking up answers to questions you do not know.  In all likelihood, you will encounter some questions that will totally seem off the wall, that were perhaps nowhere covered in your patent bar review course.

However, the technique for looking up your answers to the questions that you are uncertain of is a very elementary one: look at the call of the question (the USPTO will very clearly spell out which category and subcategory you must look under in the index to the MPEP, USC, or CFR) and look up the relevant heading or subheading of the MPEP, USC, or CFR index.  It is really that simple.  (Also, when you are thinking of the subject matter of the question and if the index to the MPEP, USC, or CFR does not have the heading you are thinking of, think of synonyms or other analogous ways which whatever you're looking up may appear.)

I know that some people have concerns or have heard from others that it is necessary to know how to look up answers under exam pressures.  But, I am a person with average test taking ability, who worked through the October 16, 2002 exam under less than optimum conditions (physically, I was a zombie with 3 hours of sleep, was running on empty (no caffeine, no food, etc.)), and I could 'figure out', on the fly, how to tackle the questions.  The key thing to keep in mind is that this is an objective exam.  As a result, there will be one answer out of your four choices that will be indisputably correct and three dud answers.  Furthermore, because this is an objective exam and not an essay exam, what the question is asking you for will not be something very vague and esoteric.  It will be concrete and the call of the question will really stand out.  At least, this was true for the October 2002 patent bar exam.  Also, the correct answer was taken verbatim (usually) out of the relevant USC, CFR, or MPEP section (that addressed the call of the question), so this was another way in which you could determine which one out of the four answer choices was correct.  Hopefully, the April 2003 patent bar exam and subsequent exams will be just as clear cut.

The breakdown of the October 16, 2002 exam is as follows (from my second glance at it post-exam): 1) There will be questions that you will be very familiar with (hopefully) on the morning section (they asked a lot of frequently repeated material from past USPTO patent bar exams (which is why I stated in the above that my outline really helped me gain some extra points here I would not have had otherwise) (these are fundamentals of patent law, practice, and procedure: 35 USC 101, 102, 103, 112 issues; questions relating to the various components of a patent application: drawings, claims (including easy questions such as antecedent basis questions), etc.); 2) There will be questions that you be very unfamiliar with on the afternoon section (so you will have to simply look up the answers to the ones you do not know).

The October 16, 2002 patent bar exam questions and answers are available at the USPTO OED website.

 

Additional thoughts on preparing and passing the patent bar exam:

http://members.bellatlantic.net/~lkim/patent_bar_pass_more.html

USPTO Patent Bar Exam Regrades - petitions for regrades and results
Patent Bar Exam Discussion Group - Including Discussion of Regrade Appeals
PLI - Analysis of Patent Bar Exam Questions and Answers (including October 2002)
Jim Longacre - Analysis of most recent Patent Bar Exam (including October 2002) -- he includes his criticisms of questionable exam questions

PLI Patent Bar Review
Kayton Patent Bar Review
Patent Quiz Master -- interesting work in progress

PBG and AIPA Rulemaking and Patent Examination Guidelines (March 2001) - Training and Implementation Guide - USPTO
American Inventors Protection Act of 1999 (AIPA) - USPTO Powerpoint Presentation
USPTO Examination Guidelines for 35 USC 102(e) as amended by AIPA and 102(g) as amended by the High Technology Technical Amendments Act of 2002
USPTO - Training Slides - 35 USC 102(e) and 374 as amended by HR 2215 (Technical Amendment Act) - posted Nov. 2002
35 USC 102(e) and 374 - Effective Data Provisions - effective Nov. 2002
American Inventor's Protection Act of 1999 - What's New - USPTO
Flowcharts for 35 USC 102(e) Dates

metroPatent - free USPTO forms -- both patent and trademark forms
Bitlaw -- free USPTO forms (patents)
PatentCafe -- fee charged -- USPTO forms (patents and trademarks)
InventNet -- free USPTO forms (links to the USPTO website -- their forms)

Nipper's patent law blog
The Patent Blog

Last updated: 06/10/2004

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Preparing, taking, and passing the PA bar exam -- my experience