National Board of Medical Examiners (NBME)
Welcome to the VeRO Profile page of the National Board of Medical Examiners (NBME).
The NBME is providing this page to assist eBay users in identifying auctions ofunauthorized and copyrighted materials of the NBME. If you find an auction item that you
suspect is copyrighted, please contact NBME (Legal@nbme.org).
History of the National Board of Medical Examiners
The NBME is an independent, not-for-profit organization that provides high-quality
examinations for the health professions. Its mission is to protect the health of the publicthrough state of the art assessment, and it also has a major commitment to research anddevelopment in evaluation and measurement. The NBME was founded in 1915 because of
the need for a voluntary, nationwide examination that medical licensing authorities could
accept as the standard by which to judge candidates for medical licensure. Since that time,it has continued without interruption to provide high quality examinations for this purposeand has become a model and a resource of international stature in testing methodologies
and evaluation in medicine.
United States Medical Licensing Examination (USMLE)
The USMLE assesses a physician's ability to apply knowledge, concepts, and principles,and to demonstrate fundamental patient-centered skills, that are in health and disease andthat constitute the basis of safe and effective patient care. Results of the USMLE arereported to medical licensing authorities in the United States for their use in granting theinitial license to practice medicine. The USMLE is co-sponsored and co-owned by theNBME and the Federation of State Medical Boards (FSMB). It is administered in threesteps: Step 1; Step 2 Clinical Knowledge (CK) and Step 2 Clinical Skills (CS); and Step 3.
Other NBME Programs and Services
The NBME provides subject examinations in areas covering basic science and clinicalscience disciplines. These secure, nationally norm referenced examinations are appropriate
for administration as end-of-course or end-of-clerkship assessments and are provided to
medical schools in the United States and internationally.
The NBME provides testing, educational, consultative, and research services to a numberof medical specialty boards, societies, and health sciences organizations. Services include
developing, administering, and analyzing examinations for certification, recertification, intraining, self-assessment, or evaluation of special competence.
The NBME also offers web-based self-assessments for US and international medicalstudents and graduates. The self-assessments cover content in the areas of basic science,clinical science, and clinical medicine.
The Post-Licensure Assessment System (PLAS) is a joint activity of the NBME and FSMB
and was developed to assist medical licensing authorities in assessing licensed orpreviously licensed physicians who have already been licensed. The PLAS includes theSpecial Purpose Examination (SPEX) and the Assessment Center Program.

Legal Ramifications
The NBME has a legal responsibility and right to protect its intellectual property. The NBME
regularly reviews postings on eBay and does and will enforce its intellectual property rights
under appropriate law. The NBME's name and emblem are trademarks and are bothfederally registered with the Patent and Trademark Office. Both trademarks are the sole andexclusive property of the NBME. A current listing of NBME's trademarks can be foundonline at www.uspto.gov.
The materials (i.e., test questions, clinical computer simulations, and standardized patientcases) of the USMLE and of NBME's self-assessment program and subject examinations
are copyrighted. Publishing any "remembered" materials or replicas of these materials is anunauthorized reproduction of NBME's materials, constitutes copyright infringement and isstrictly prohibited. None of the NBME or USMLE copyrighted material or portions thereof
may be duplicated, copied or distributed by any means without the express permission of
the copyright holders. The NBME intends to take infringers who ignore the copyright noticeand engage in illegal selling of trademarked material to court, where it will seek all theremedies for copyright and trademark infringement available under federal law, including
damages and injunctive relief. Any violation of NBME's copyrights and trademarks can not
only lead to legal sanctions, but can also have professional consequences. Medicalstudents and medical school graduates, prospective students, examinees of the USMLE
and NBME self-assessment examinations and subject examinations are reminded that they
are bound to the terms they agreed to follow regarding disclosure of intellectual propertyprior to the administration of one of these examinations. Failure to adhere to the terms ofthese policies will subject an individual to various penalties up to and including being barredfrom future USMLE examinations.