Watch this free full recording of the 2023 EUIPO AD6 EPSO Exam Info Webcast to get full details on the Notice of Competition and answers to your questions about the EUIPO exams.
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Webcast TRANSCRIPT
Transcript Quick Links
ABOUT EU TRAINING
NEW EPSO SELECTION PROCESS
EUIPO COMPETITION OVERVIEW
WHERE WILL YOU WORK?
ARE YOU ELIGIBLE?
QUESTIONS
WHY IS THIS A GREAT OPPORTUNITY?
EPSO COMPETITION PHASES
HOW TO GET ONE OF THESE JOBS
INTRODUCTION
We’re here to discuss an extremely exciting opportunity which is the new AD6 Intellectual Property Competition. It will offer you the opportunity to land a position in Alicante, Spain at the EU Intellectual Property Office. The reason why it's so unique is because it's the first in the line of hopefully many new exams under the reformed, updated and more streamlined EPSO selection process.
If you bear with us, we will cover a lot of ground. We're going to walk through the entire process of how this competition works and I'll try to give a bit of context about how this compares to the previous way EPSO ran its competitions. This is a brand-new way of selecting candidates and selecting future EU officials. It’s not that radically different, but I'm going to point out what the differences are as well as the parallels.
The biggest difference is that there is no more Assessment Center; selection is based purely on multiple choice tests and a case study written exam. There are no presentations or interviews required at this stage in order to pass and get on the Reserve List.
As a disclaimer, I’d like to add that all the information I offer here is not official, although we do our best to deliver the most accurate and up-to-date information we can. We are an independent company and do not represent EPSO, so if you have any doubts then please refer to the Notice of Competition or ask the customer service section of EPSO for clarification.
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ABOUT EU TRAINING
EU Training has accumulated a robust community over the many years we have been in business; we have over 100,000 registered users and 57,800 followers on facebook. You may want to check out our facebook group for this particular competition. We also have an extensive database of practice questions, tests and exercises; over 17 million combinations of questions and tests have been generated over the years.
We also have a lot of webinars, some free and some available for a fee, which cover our methodology and offer explanations on the selection tests. There are some webinars concentrating on math subjects such as algebra, so you may want to take advantage of those to brush up on your skills.
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THE NEW EPSO SELECTION PROCESS
Let’s take a look at the selection process as we want to ensure you are fully aware of how EPSO has changed things because the procedure is different to what you may already be familiar with.
The first step is that you register on the EPSO website, fill in all the forms and submit an application with everything that is required.
You then need to upload your supporting documents, although the deadline for this typically goes beyond the initial application deadline.
Once you’ve done that, you will need to sit particular tests, and this is where changes have taken place. There will be computer-based tests (CBT) as usual to test abstract, numerical and verbal reasoning skills. There are also field-related multiple choice questions (MCQ). In this particular competition that means the knowledge base related to the field of intellectual property and particularly within the context of the European Union. For each question, you will need to choose the correct answer from most likely four options.
Then there is the case study, which is the written exam. Interestingly, it does not pertain to intellectual property. It is most notably designed to assess your communication skills. I like to emphasize that point as a lot of candidates assume it is there to evaluate their knowledge in a given field.
If you pass these stages of the selection process, the EPSO board will then conduct eligibility checks on your application. You will make certain declarations as to your educational background and work experience and provide any other information as required. You’ll need to upload supporting documents to verify those declarations. However, none of that will be checked until you pass the competition.
If everything goes well (and we’re here to make sure that happens), your name will be placed on the Reserve List. That is the prerequisite for you to be recruited and hired to a permanent position.
The terminology is important because EPSO deals with the selection phase of the process. They do not deal with the legal or technical aspects of recruitment, which happens after you are put on the Reserve List.
Recruitment can only happen when your name appears on the Reserve List, but there are certain steps you can take at that point to increase your chances of being invited to fill a certain vacancy. It is worth noting that you may be required to undergo an interview or an additional test before being hired. It’s not fully known what the next steps will be as that is in the hands of the recruiting institution. I do need to point out however, that there is no guarantee that you will be hired if you are on the Reserve List.
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EUIPO COMPETITION OVERVIEW
POSITIONS AVAILABLE
There are 200 spots available on the Reserve List. This is considered a large number for a competition and as such gives you a better chance of getting on the Reserve List than many earlier competitions in similar areas.
However, this is not to be confused with how many vacancies are available at the European Intellectual Property Office. That can change over time. When the competition comes out, there may be 50, 60 or 80 vacancies, but there may be more vacancies that become available three, six or twelve months later.
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WHERE WILL YOU WORK?
Alicante, Spain.
This is quite unique as most EPSO competitions are run for EU institutions such as the Council, Court of Justice, Court of Auditors, etc. These institutions would be the typical clients and the place of employment would typically be Brussels or Luxembourg.
In this case, it is an EU agency (the EU IP Office) and the place of work is the seat of that particular agency. In this respect, it is quite an atypical competition.
What are you going to do?
Dealing with intellectual property issues on an EU-wide level and with the global impact that entails.
There is a description of duties listed in Annex II in the Notice of Competition but broadly speaking, for example: you will be examining, managing and preparing related decisions for trade mark opposition cases, design application and/or invalidity cases and court cases relating to intellectual property.
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ARE YOU ELIGIBLE?
This is a vital part of the process and determines if you can progress through the competition. Otherwise, you may be disqualified at some point if you do not have the languages, qualifications or experience required.
GENERAL REQUIREMENTS
You should:
- have EU citizenship.
- have fulfilled any required military service (or have received an exemption).
- meet the character requirements (i.e., not have a criminal record).
LANGUAGE RULES
You must have knowledge of at least TWO official EU languages, known as Language 1 and Language 2.
Language 1 means that you have a thorough knowledge (at least at C1 level) of one of the 24 official languages of the EU. This choice does NOT need to correlate to your nationality, as long as the language is one of the 24.
It is your EU mother tongue, or the one you speak most proficiently if your actual native language is one that is NOT an EU officially accepted one (e.g. Russian).
Your Language 1 choice also depends on your ability to process information quickly and efficiently as the abstract, numerical and verbal reasoning tests will be administered in this language.
Language 2 must be different from language 1 and be one that you have a good command of (at least at B2 level). It must also be one of the following five languages: English, French, German, Italian or Spanish. These are the most common languages spoken among candidates and in the EU institutions.
For Language 2, I’m encouraging you to choose the language in which you’ll sit the multiple choice test. That is, the language in which you know the professional terminology associated with intellectual property. That will be the language in which you need to write the case study (the written exam). So choose the language you will be able to express yourself in the most confidently when considering eloquence, vocabulary and accuracy. This is a personal choice that depends on which language you have been educated in or have obtained knowledge in intellectual property, so that you are familiar with the appropriate jargon etc.
QUALIFICATIONS
This can be tricky as work experience can be very diverse for candidates. There is a lot of information on EPSO’s website as well giving guidance in this area.
Basically there are three scenarios:
- A three year university diploma in law plus a minimum of three years of relevant professional experience.
OR
- A three year university diploma in a field OTHER THAN law plus at least five years of relevant professional experience.
OR
- A three year university diploma plus a minimum of four years relevant professional experience AND an advanced degree in intellectual property rights.
Professional experience is considered relevant if:
- it was acquired in the field of intellectual property.
- it is directly related in nature to at least two duties listed in Annex II of the Notice of Competition.
There are very specific pointers in Annex II as to these duties so you need to match your professional experience to those particular tasks that are listed.
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QUESTIONS
I’ll pause here to take a few questions from the chat box.
Q: For prior jobs, can we provide a letter signed by the director indicating the tasks that were developed?
A: I believe yes. How else could you prove that you did certain tasks and not other tasks? Simply putting the name of the position or company, law firm, trade mark office etc is perhaps insufficient. You can work in a trade mark office in an assistant or secretary role, or you might have worked in a law firm that dealt with criminal law but you were the IP specialist. It is strong evidence, therefore, to have a formal letter or declaration on a letterhead signed by someone higher up in the organization (the CEO or manager, for example).
Q: Is it possible to pass this competition if the experience in IP is not that strong? I had training in IP but did not work on a lot of IP files.
A: In terms of passing the competition, yes. You can study enough to pass the abstract, numerical and abstract reasoning part and brush up your knowledge on IP matters and do practice tests (we have tons of those that you can practice with on our website). So yes, it is possible that you will pass. Whether you meet the formal qualifications and work experience requirements is another matter. Will you pass the eligibility tests? That depends on your personal circumstances and background and if you can prove that. You should not, however, make things up in your application.
Q: What should you use your best language for? CBT or MCQ?
A: For the computer-based tests you should use the language for which you can process information the fastest. Language 2 should be a language in which you can understand the professional terminology linked to IP and in which you can draft a written test with the greatest amount of sophisticated language. That should inform which language you choose.
Q: Is there any procedure to being transferred as a permanent official from an EU institution to the IP office?
A: Not sure I can give you an official answer as a lot depends on your status. What status would you hold if you are a permanent EU official, say AD6? Theoretically and as far as I remember from the staff regulations, it should be possible to be seconded to an agency, or the IPO, subject to there being an actual vacancy that your profile matches and approval from HR. Legally speaking it should be possible but it should be officially checked.
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WHY IS THIS A GREAT OPPORTUNITY?
Aside from the chance to walk barefoot on the beach in Alicante, there are other great benefits in terms of allowances that you have access to as an EU official. There are European schools available where your children can learn in your native language (as long as that is an EU official language). They can get access to a national education, health insurance and pretty attractive salaries.
What does that mean in practice? We have a salary calculator on our website that was recently updated that will give you an idea of what to expect. In our example here, we have filled in various variables to show you what might be available to you in terms of salary. As an AD6 official and if you are married with two children and have to relocate, that means you are eligible for both expatriate and household allowances, so the rough estimate of a net monthly salary is 7 500 Euro. This is a pretty good salary, especially compared with the living expenses in Alicante, as in other parts of the world that salary may have much lower purchasing power than there.
But don’t go for this opportunity solely for the salary because, although an important motivating factor, that will not work in the long term. Go for this opportunity because of your interest in the work, your professional development, and the chance to work for the EU.
EU SALARY CALCULATOR
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EPSO COMPETITION PHASES
Let’s look at the different stages of the competition.
STEP 1 - APPLICATION PROCESS
You fill in the form online and answer all the questions in any of the official languages of the EU. This does not have any impact in terms of the languages you choose for the competition. You’ll also need to upload your supporting documents to your account.
Make sure you apply before 29th August 2023. Don’t leave it till the last moment and ensure that you have all the information and documents, certificates etc (some may need to be translated) that you need. Leave yourself plenty of time.
As for the point I mentioned earlier, the uploading of the supporting documents has a separate deadline of 2nd October 2023.
STEP 2 - EPSO TESTS
This is probably what causes the most concern for candidates. These tests are done remotely and in a single setting, so there is no travel required. All you require is a computer with a webcam. Please note that you’ll need to have administrative rights to the computer, so your company laptop may not be appropriate – check with your IT department. You’ll also need a reliable internet connection and a silent space where you can focus. It will probably take 2 - 3 hours, perhaps a little less.
EPSO COMPUTER-BASED TEST (CBT)
The computer-based tests are done in Language 1 (any of the 24 official languages). There is only a pass or fail mark on these tests and there is no ranking. It also does not count towards your final score.
The verbal reasoning test has 20 questions to be done in 35 minutes. You will read a text passage with a question attached and then you need to choose the one correct answer. Be aware that they will try to mislead and confuse you here as to what the right answer might be. This is designed to evaluate your reasoning skills rather than language comprehension. You need to apply logical thinking in order to identify the correct answer.
The numerical reasoning test comprises 10 questions to be done in 20 minutes, so you have two minutes per question. There will be a chart where you will need to employ mathematical reasoning and estimation to find the correct answer.
Then there is the abstract reasoning test which is often considered the toughest as you only have 10 minutes to answer 10 questions.
CBT SCORING
The good news is that there is a formula to attain a pass mark.
In the verbal reasoning test, you need to get half of the questions correct (10/20).
The abstract and numerical reasoning test results are combined, however. So, you need 10/20 marks combined to pass both these tests. Theoretically, you might completely mess up the abstract reasoning and still pass based on your numerical reasoning score. You wouldn’t, however, want to take that risk and instead would want to maximize your chances of doing the best you can in both.
EPSO FIELD-RELATED MCQ and CASE STUDY
The field-related MCQ multiple choice question test is done in language 2.
The case study is also done in language 2.
All this will happen on your device that is remotely proctored or supervised and done all on the same day.
When you are done with the tests, they will not immediately evaluate the results. Only those who pass the CBT (abstract, numerical and verbal reasoning tests) will have their MCQ test and case study corrected.
The field-related MCQ (related to intellectual property) contains 30 questions to be done in 35 minutes in language 2. From our perspective this seems a little limiting as it is difficult to evaluate your knowledge in the field in this way. This is where you should maximize your scores as you will be ranked according to your mark in this test. In other words, on this test you will need to score highly. I cannot tell you what this means in terms of a score, because it also depends on the number of candidates taking the test and how they perform. The pass mark is not as relevant here because of this ranking, so the cut-off score will be dependent on the factors I just mentioned. It will certainly be insufficient to only reach 50% as here you are aiming to be in the top percentile of the candidates.
Your results here will count towards your final score, as will your case study written exam results. The duration of the case study exam is not yet known. This is still being finalized by EPSO. Chances are the exam will be relatively short, perhaps 45 minutes. Also important to note is that the task that is required of you does not pertain to intellectual property, although the case or framing may be about intellectual property. The aim here is NOT to write a brief or share your knowledge on aspects of intellectual property. This exam is evaluating your written communication skills based on a background document.
The scoring will be out of 10 with a pass mark of 5. However, this does count towards your final score.
The other layer of complexity here is this: it is not just a matter of adding up your scores from the multiple choice quiz and the case study exam. There is a formula that is used. The MCQ and case study exam have different weighting when the overall score is calculated. The MCQ counts for 70% of your score and the case study counts for 30% of your final score. So the specific questions linked to the topic of intellectual property (MCQ) have a higher weighting. The case study score is weighted at 30% but they multiply the actual score by three.
It does seem a bit odd and we wondered why they had decided on this formula. I think it’s because it is on a scale of 10, which is relatively little, so they decided to multiply it by three and weight it at 30% only. This is not something they have done before, but it means that your knowledge in the field carries a much greater weight.
On a side note, the premises where I am broadcasting from in Brussels has a silent space with reliable internet and computers. So, if you’d like to take advantage of the logistical support we can offer here, then please let us know.
STEP 3 - ELIGIBILITY CHECKS
What do you need to provide? The documents will already be in the system as the deadline is 2nd October to upload your supporting documents and prove your case that you are eligible for this competition.
Whatever you have declared will be checked at this point so make sure you don’t get disqualified.
STEP 4 - RESERVE LIST
They look at the scores and see who are the top 200 candidates that passed the eligibility checks. So they may look at the top 250 candidates initially as there will be some candidates who have not proven that their work experience is relevant.
The bottom line is that they have to fill 200 spots on the Reserve List, so they will check who are the best performing candidates.
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HOW TO GET THE JOB?
You practice! You should focus on practicing the areas that are your weak spots, should that be abstract reasoning, intellectual property knowledge or whatever. We have over 100 multiple choice tests to help you evaluate your existing knowledge.
You can also look at things like the IP Office annual report or EU legislative summaries (which you can google) and find material relevant to IP trademarks etc. There are quite a few resources out there that you can use to ensure you focus on each aspect of the competition.
Depending on how you perform in these tests, you should allocate a certain amount of time to consistent preparation, whether that’s daily or a few times a week. Have a plan in place and make sure you are fully prepared.
When do we expect the tests to take place? All candidates are expected to book a time when they can sit in an appropriate space to take the tests. So that will take some time to organize with presumably thousands of candidates. Therefore, my guess is that it will take place from mid October to late November. This is a likely time-frame, but this is just my guess. I’m keeping in mind the fact that EPSO wants to speed up the process as this was the reasoning behind this system and why the assessment center was removed.
Be persistent with your preparations; measure your performance and see where you need to focus.
Use our resources, the practice tests, the webinars (lots of them are free). We are here to help and support you in this journey. Let us know how we can help.
We also have the EU Test books and the Administrators 2023 edition available. There is also a new edition coming up in probably January 2024 with even more updated content.
There is also the Facebook group that you can join where you can connect with fellow candidates and share ideas, information and best practices.
- PRACTICE FOR 10 12 WEEKS
- PREPARE FOR 1 HOUR A DAY OR 10 HOURS A WEEK
- LEARN TEST METHODOLOGY
- PERSISTENCE IS KEY
- DO LOTS OF TEST SIMULATIONS
QUESTIONS
Some final questions from the chat box.
Q: How do you understand the work experience requirements listed in the Notice of Competition? Does one have to have five years of professional work experience in two of the relevant duties each? How to present work experience in order to be eligible?
A: The way the Notice of Competition puts that forward is that you need experience in at least two fields that are listed in the Annex. You don’t need to have experience in everything they listed there as that would probably not be possible. It’s not that you need to tick all those boxes but at least two should be covered.
If there are other variables, let us know and we’ll give you our view but the selection board has the final say on whether your experience qualifies or not.
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THANK YOU FOR PARTICIPATING
I hope this gets you a little closer to your goal of landing a job in Alicante in intellectual property law. It’s a wonderful opportunity.
Thanks for being here, and please feel free to share this webinar with your friends. Let us know what we can do to help you and if you have any further questions, please don’t hesitate to get in contact with us. We will do our best to answer you as soon as possible.
There’ll be other competitions coming up in the future and we’ll be releasing lots of new EU training resources and material, so look out for that.
Till then, all the best and good luck!If you have further questions, please get in touch.