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Patent criticality
Nobody asked the Patent Office to look at it
My application has been pending for years and nothing has happened. Why?
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 If the request is not filed in time, the application is treated as withdrawn - no refusal, no letter you can argue with, nothing.
What actually happens
The application is filed. Nothing arrives from the Patent Office because nothing is meant to. Eighteen months later it publishes, which looks like progress. Then the period for requesting examination quietly expires and the application ends.
The request is made on Form 18 with the prescribed fee. Nothing prompts you to file it.
The period changed in March 2024
For applications filed on or after 15 March 2024, the request must be made within thirty-one months from the priority date or the filing date, whichever is earlier. For applications filed on or before 14 March 2024, the older forty-eight month period is preserved.
That change has a sharp practical edge for international filings. Because Indian national phase entry is also at thirty-one months from priority, a PCT application entering India on or after 15 March 2024 may have to file the examination request at or immediately after entry - the comfortable gap has gone.
An expedited route exists under rule 24C on Form 18A for defined categories, including startups, small entities, applicants where at least one is a female natural person, government bodies, and applicants using a patent prosecution highway arrangement.
Rule 24B(1) of the Patents Rules 2003 as substituted by the Patents (Amendment) Rules, 2024; the earlier period is preserved for older filings by rule 24B(1)(vi). Expedited examination under rule 24C.
There is no reminder from the Patent Office. Missed requests are one of the most common causes of dead Indian applications.
Diarise the examination request on the day you file. Where you qualify for expedited examination, consider using it - it can remove years from the timeline.
Assuming the forty-eight month period still applies. For anything filed since March 2024, it does not.
Portfolios docketed before March 2024 under the old rule and never re-docketed.
For every pending Indian application you hold, write down the filing date and the earliest priority date and work out which period applies. Do that today, not at renewal time.
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
Related
Request for examination
A separate request (Form 18) asking the Patent Office to actually examine your application. Without it, nothing happens.
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…
The examination request window shortened from 48 months to 31 - but only for new filings
The week after you file
Filing starts several clocks at once and nothing will remind you about any of them.
Thinking about filing?
Before anything is drafted, the useful work is establishing what is already public, what is genuinely yours, and what you can honestly claim.
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.