USPTO registration examination

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In order to be registered as a patent agent or patent attorney in the United States, one must pass the USPTO registration examination. ^[1] This is a 100-question, 6-hour, multiple-choice test. The exam contains 10 performance questions which do not count towards the exam taker's final score. The required score to pass is 70%, or 63 correct out of 90. Statistics from examinations administered before June 2004 show that only (on average) 40% of examinees attained this score. In the more recent, computer-based examinations, 56.4% of examinees attained a passing score. ^[2] The examination is frequently referred to as the patent bar, but it is not necessary to have a law degree, or even have taken a law course, to sit for the exam.

The USPTO additionally requires that all candidates for registration have adequate scientific and technical training sufficient to provide valuable service to clients. This requirement is typically met with a bachelor's degree in a field of natural science or technology. These fields include computer science, chemistry, physics, biology, or engineering. The technical training requirement can also be satisfied by passing the Fundamentals of Engineering exam (FE exam), or by demonstrating sufficient science coursework or applicable life experience.

Degrees in the philosophical arts, such as pure mathematics, or the social sciences ^[3]), such as sociology, are not sufficient by themselves to meet the technical training requirement. However, the scientific and technical training requirement can be fulfilled by submitting proof of 40 semester hours of undergraduate courses in the above fields, 8 of which must consist of either two consecutive semesters of physics for scientists and engineers with laboratory, or two consecutive semesters of general chemistry with laboratory. All 40 semester hours can be completed at community colleges, and do not have to result in any bachelor of science degree.

Before June 2004, the USPTO registration exam was a pencil-and-paper test given at approximately 15 locations around the country. The USPTO has moved to a computer-based examination, which can be taken on any business day at any of several hundred Prometric locations around the country. Once applicants have been approved to sit for the exam, they have 90 days in which to schedule an examination date with Prometric. The pencil-and-paper test is still offered once a year at the USPTO's office. The examination is intended to measure the applicant's familiarity with USPTO procedures, ethics rules, federal statutes and regulations. The applicant is allowed to use an electronic copy of the Manual of Patent Examining Procedure (MPEP) in the computer-based examination, and a paper copy of the MPEP in the pencil-and-paper test, but no other material. A large number of questions typically deal with the proper drafting and handling of a U.S. patent application or international application.

Law students who pass the registration exam and become admitted as patent agents before admission to the bar are allowed to change registration to patent attorney upon supplying USPTO with proof of admission to a state or territorial bar.