The following post was written by Gene Quinn , of IPWatchdog and Practice Center Contributor.

The United States Patent and Trademark Office has updated the patent bar exam, sometimes referred to as the patent registration examination.  Effective April 12, 2011, the patent bar examination now tests MPEP 8th Edition Revision 8, as well as critically important guidelines, such as the KSR, Bilski and 112 guidelines, not yet a part of any edition of the MPEP.  See USPTO Updates Registration Examination.  I have been teaching the PLI Patent Bar Review Course for over 10 years now, and along with John White (the original course creator) participated in revising our materials, lectures and questions to bring the course up to date with the latest edition of the exam now being offered.  I continue to believe the PLI Patent Bar Review Course is the best course out there, and I have put together the following Top 10 reasons to take our Review Course.

1. PLI’s Patent Bar Review Course has been completely updated – overhauled really. We had already been working on updates to our materials based on the inevitable change in the exam moving from MPEP Rev. 4 to MPEP Rev. 8.  We knew it was only a matter of time before a new revision of the MPEP was tested, so we have had MPEP Rev. 8 materials at the ready.  The text and questions have been completely revised and our lectures re-done

2. We have spent considerable time and effort putting together new materials that specifically and directly cover the newly testable materials (i.e., KSR, Bilski and 112 guidelines) that are not a part of MPEP Rev. 8. We expect that these newly testable materials will be heavily tested on the new patent bar examination.

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