Paul Bendemire, a NAIP (North America Intellectual Property Co) senior patent engineer in Patent Engineering Deptartment I, has passed USPTO (The United States Patent and Trademark Office) PA (patent agent) exam recently. NAIP international marketing division (IMD) arranged an interview with him on October 26, 2011（Wednesday）to enquire relevant issues and details about his champ experience in mastering this exam. There are three questions to solicit his exam experience. He also shares the tips of preparing the exam with honorable IP Observer readers.

Interview with Paul

Paul's Brief Bio

Three Questions to Solicit Valuable PA Exam Experience

Basically, IMD has prepared three questions to solicit his comment and opinion. Bendemire's precious experience and success of passing patent agent exam administered by USPTO is definitely instructive and useful to people who are either interested in US PA exam or merely curious. Three questions are listed as follows.

1. How does he feel about this exam?

2. What is his short-term plan now?

3. Is there any apparent change of his current work or daily life right away owing to passing the exam?

 Answers to the questions

He feels quite relieved now though he is still a little bit disbelieved that he has already passed the exam. This exam is very hard to pass. Before passing the exam, he had sensed some encouragement and pressure from NAIP General Manager Winston Hsu and his family (parents-in-law). He feels quite stressed since he began to prep for PA exam. The stress did not end before passing the exam till last week. He knows there is a lot expectation especially from his family. Now he is feeling fine.

1. He'll stay here and keep working. There will be a lot for him to learn since a certified patent agent is allowed to sign patent document and call the examiners. In fact, he feels slightly tensed about calling the examiners because he has never had any experience of calling them before. His short term plan is to learn as much as he can to improve his knowledge and increase more practical experience in being a competent patent agent. This is how he might build up his reputation by being a true patent agent. He decides that he should not rely on the small success of passing this exam to coast along for an easy career.

2. People around him start to ask him questions about patent more often. He just went to AIT to submit his registration application for being a patent agent. He has to sign up a form to fill out his address and name including paying 100 US dollars for joining federal agency. After the application, USPTO will publish his name on USPTO website for a month to solicit public opinion. The so-called "soliciting public opinion" is actually to verify if a candidate of patent agent is free from any criminal record or any ethical concerns. If there is any objection proposed to question his integrity and identity of being an innocent civilian, his patent agent qualification might be revoked. However, a candidate can also defend for himself (herself) to keep the PA qualification.  He is quite interested in training people and he welcomes opportunities to be an instructor.

Tips of Prepping for USPTO PA Exam

The procedure of being a patent agent:

1. To pass the test

2. To send in the application to US agencies with PA candidate's address and my name

3. To solicit public opinion for one month on USPTO website

4. A certified patent agent

Note: B and C can be processed simultaneously though the application can be postponed up to two years. The patent certificate applicant will have to retake the exam if the application is filed after passing the exam for more than two years. The effectiveness of a patent agent certificate is permanent once it is certified (e.g. There is no need to recertify a patent agent every five years.) unless the patent agent's qualification is questioned or revoked.

Practical Test Requirements:
Length of effective preparation: 100 hrs
Test Content: 100 questions
Length of Test Time: 6 hours
Exam-style: open book
Exam Form: Multiple-choice questions or written tests;
Note:
Any examinees that choose the latter have to go to Washington D.C. and pay more for joining the test. The former one is conducted by a computer test. An examinee may schedule the day to take the test at a prometric anywhere in the U.S.

The nearest place to Taiwan is Guan where Paul went to take the exam this time.

Required Cramming Material:

1. Study Guide: "Pass the Patent Bar" published by a private publisher Longacre. This study guide offers the highlight of every MPEP（Manual of Patent Examining Procedure） chapter. This study guide is available by purchase.

2. Old Exams (practice exams): openly available on USPTO website. The 10 questions Paul did are old tests of year 1999 to 2003 published by PTO. USPTO stops publishing old tests after 2003. The old tests vary slightly. They do help examinees to familiarize with all the rules how USPTO form the questions, language, and key rules how to find answers by doing them in verbatim.

3. US Code:35 USC patent law, 37 CFR, and MPEP. US code is the law by congress. The highest level of law is constitution. The level of law is lower and the regulation is the lowest. CFR stands for "Code of Federal Regulation". It is the interpretation of law. MPEP is the Manuel of Patent Procedure. It shows how examiners do their jobs. It is the lowest level of law.

Epilogue

Though Paul is about to receive his PA certificate, he is still very humble and sticks to his daily belief. His upbringing teaches him to abort status and place less value in title. Being certified as a qualified PA won't change him much the way he used to be though people around him might view him differently. To care for merit in people always ranks the highest in his value. He will always hold on to his strong belief of being a decent patent agent.