We are delighted to share the recent news that Anne-Marie Conn, one of our trainee patent attorneys, has been awarded the Strode prize by the Council of CIPA (the Chartered Institute of Patent Attorneys) for achieving the highest mark of all candidates who sat the FD1 exam held in October 2020.
The FD1 exam (formerly called “P2”) is a final-level exam that tests the knowledge of UK patent law and practice, and typically requires years of experience and months of book-work, reading of case-law and revision to pass. Trainee patent attorneys are high-flying individuals who have enjoyed academic success throughout their lives, but the standard required to pass the professional exams is extremely high even for these capable individuals. The FD1 paper is one of the more challenging exams and it’s not unusual for the brightest of trainees to need more than one attempt to pass it.
Anne-Marie has bucked the trend by not only passing the exam on her first sitting, which by the way was the first opportunity she had for entering the exam, but doing it in style by getting the highest mark of all candidates. She also passed the other final exam she took at the same time (FD4 – formerly “P6” – testing opinion work on the infringement and validity of UK patents), and has therefore sat and passed all of the UK exams she needs to take in order to qualify as a Chartered Patent Attorney – provided she passes the EQEs (the European Qualifying Exams).
Well done on passing your exams and achieving such a high mark Anne-Marie!
