A post from student blogger Nicole

First off I would like to say what a pain in the butt applying for the patent bar exam is.  But don’t stress out because I am here to help you!  To start off you have to read the General Requirements Bulletin and fill out a form provided by the Office of Enrollment and Discipline (OED).  But that’s not all.  You have to make sure you send in your transcript, UNOPENED.  For some reason I thought I could open my transcript and still be able to send it in, but I was wrong.  So I had to have my transcript sent to me again.  You also have to fall under one of the three categories in order to take the exam.  The three categories include Category A: bachelor’s degree in a recognized technical subject, Category B: bachelor’s degree in another subject but for this one you have to explain courses you’ve taken that make you qualify (for this category you are allowed to have an opened transcript to highlight specific courses), and Category C: practical engineering or scientific experience which means you have passed the Fundamentals of Engineering (FE) test.  One more thing is that there is a couple of questions on the form where you have to say yes or no.  One of the questions is about having any kind of traffic violations.  It is important to list any violations that were under $100.  It is also important to explain the traffic violation in full detail.  Another thing is the certificate of mailing form that should be filled out.  All of the appropriate forms are located at the end of the General Requirements Bulletin document.

If the forms, transcript, or descriptions of the traffic violations are not included in the information sent to the USPTO, then they will deny you from being able to take the exam.  But on the bright side they will let you submit the missing things in order to be allowed to take the exam.  This will all take a couple weeks so make sure you plan accordingly.  Also it is very important to read the General Requirements Bulletin because I read that you can be denied if you put your middle initial instead of your full middle name.  It’s kind of a silly thing to be denied for but it can happen.  The USPTO really just wants you to have a good moral character and reputation.

Stayed tuned for one of my future blogs to find out how I did!