The CIPA Informals Handbook for Trainee Patent Attorneys is available to download here.
This is a fantastic guide, if we do say so ourselves! The handbook comprises introductions to CIPA, the Informals, IPReg, PEB and EPI, and the UK and European examination systems (and the key differences between them). It also provides lists of useful resources for day-to-day work and for examination preparation. We hope this guide will help trainees make sense of the profession and the qualification process, and to understand how the Informals and CIPA can help them. We also hope that trainers will find this handbook useful.
The handbook was last updated in April 2022.
This booklet is made available to every new student member of CIPA and aims to fulfil two roles:
- to provide new trainee patent attorneys with information about CIPA, the Informals and other bodies, and to encourage them to get involved with the Informals and CIPA; and
- to provide new trainee patent attorneys with some basic information about training, and useful resources that may help them through the early years in the patent profession.
When a firm takes on a new trainee, it also takes on responsibilities for training that
person and for supporting that person through their career both before and after
qualification. There are resources available to assist employers in fulfilling their
responsibilities. It is hoped that this booklet will be helpful to trainees in locating
resources that may help them in their training. It is the Informals’ point of view that firms have an obligation to train you on your journey to becoming a patent attorney.
A Warning
The information in this booklet has a limited shelf life. Information contained herein may go out of date. You are therefore advised to check that information is current before acting on it. The CIPA website is an important source of up-to-date information and the most recent version of this booklet should be available there. Also, don’t forget to subscribe to the Yellow Sheet (hit the subscribe button at the bottom of the page), where up-to-date information is provided frequently.
We emphasise that this booklet is most useful in online/PDF form, so that the
embedded hyperlinks are easily accessible. If you happen to have a printed copy
and wish to access external materials referred to herein, please use the online
version of the handbook to navigate to those external resources. We intend to
update this booklet at least annually – if you spot any errors/omissions/out-of-date
information, or would like to make suggestions for improvements, please email us.
The Yellow Sheet 