The week after you file

Run this once, immediately after a filing receipt arrives.

HighBefore filingInventorFounder

Filing starts several clocks at once and nothing will remind you about any of them.

Tick anything that is true. Each tick opens a short note on why it matters. Nothing you tick is sent anywhere - it stays in this browser tab.

Have you diarised the examination request date?For applications filed on or after 15 March 2024 it is thirty-one months from priority or filing, whichever is earlier. Miss it and the application is treated as withdrawn.
If yes: Put it in a calendar today, with a reminder six months before.
Have you diarised twelve months for foreign filing?The Paris Convention priority window is effectively immovable.
If yes: Add a decision checkpoint at month nine, not month twelve.
If you filed provisionally, have you diarised twelve months for the complete specification?Miss it and the application is treated as abandoned.
If yes: Plan what technical work has to be finished by then - the twelve months are for generating disclosure, not for waiting.
Is the address for service one that will still work in three years?Stale addresses are how examination reports and renewal notices go unread.
If yes: Use a role address or an agent, not a personal mailbox.
Do you know when it will publish?Eighteen months from the earliest date, unless withdrawn in time.
If yes: Decide before then what you want public, and whether early publication would help commercially.
Is Form 3 on file, and is there a plan for keeping it current?Section 8 non-compliance is a ground of revocation.
If yes: Assign one owner in India for foreign filing particulars across the whole family.
Do you qualify for expedited examination?Startups, small entities, applications with a female natural person applicant, government bodies and others qualify under rule 24C.
If yes: It can remove years from the timeline. Check before the ordinary request goes in.
Has the invention changed since you filed?The application protects what it described. Engineering does not stop on filing day.
If yes: Put a standing item on the engineering review comparing the product against the filed specification.

Almost every dead Indian application died at one of these dates, and almost none of them were decisions anyone made.

Sources & further reading

The Patents Rules, 2003, as amended (e-version updated to 15 March 2024) — Official IP India text
The Patents (Amendment) Rules, 2024 - G.S.R. 211(E), 15 March 2024 — Gazette text via WIPO Lex
The Patents Act, 1970 (consolidated to 1 August 2024) — Official IP India text

CriticalCriticality

Nobody asked the Patent Office to look at it

An Indian patent application is not examined unless someone files a request and pays for it. If the request is not filed in time, the application is treated as withd…

During examinationIntermediate

CriticalCriticality

Most applications do not fail. They stop.

Very few Indian applications are refused after an argument. Most simply end because a date passed - and because there is no decision to appeal, there is often nothin…

During examinationBeginner

HighCriticality

The invention changed after you filed

A patent application protects what it described on the day it was filed. Engineering does not stop on that day - and the version you eventually sell is often meaning…

During draftingIntermediate

Not sure whether this applies to your invention?

The honest answer usually needs someone to look at your actual disclosure, your timeline and the prior art. That is a conversation, not an article.

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Educational guidance, not legal advice. This material is published by Ragulika IP for general education and information. It is not legal advice, it does not create a professional-client relationship, and it is not a substitute for advice on your own facts. Patentability, infringement, prosecution strategy and every other IP outcome turn on the specific facts and on the law and Patent Office practice as they stand at the time you act. Please take professional advice before making a decision, and read the underlying provision or judgment before relying on any point stated here.

Last reviewed by Ragulika IP on 2026-08-23. Indian patent law and Patent Office practice change; check the position before you rely on it.