IP Intelligence › Patent Criticalities › Somebody is reading your published application
Patent criticality
Somebody is reading your published application
Who actually opposes patent applications, and why?
Publication makes your application visible to everyone who competes with you. In some industries, opposition is a routine part of the landscape rather than an exceptional event - and the 2024 rules changed how it runs.
What changed in 2024
Pre-grant opposition now carries a fee and must be filed electronically. More importantly, the Controller first decides whether a prima facie case is made out before the applicant is called on to respond - a filter designed to reduce representations filed purely to delay grant. Where a notice does issue, the applicant now has two months to reply rather than three, and the opposed application is examined on the expedited track.
Post-grant opposition was not changed: a person interested, within twelve months of publication of the grant, with an Opposition Board reporting on the grounds.
How applicants should think about it
If your field is one where opposition is common, the defensive work happens at drafting: a claim set with genuine fallback positions, a specification with the data an opponent will demand, and a prosecution history free of unnecessary concessions.
Monitoring matters too. Knowing that a competitor's application has published, and that the pre-grant window is open, is a strategic option most companies never exercise.
Section 25 of the Patents Act 1970; rules 55, 55A and 56 of the Patents Rules 2003, rule 55 as substituted in 2024.
The prima facie filter and the new expedited examination link are both recent; practice around them is still developing.
Watch the journals in your field. The cheapest way to deal with a competitor's over-broad claim is often a well-evidenced representation before grant.
Treating opposition as something that happens to other people, and drafting with no fallback positions.
Your own publication date - the pre-grant window opens then.
Identify the two competitors most likely to care about your application, and check whether they have filed in the same area.
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
Related
Pre-grant opposition
A written representation opposing the grant of a published application, which any person may file after publication and before grant.
Post-grant opposition
An opposition filed by a person interested at any time after grant but before twelve months from the date of publication of the grant, decided by the Controller with…
There is nowhere to retreat to
Claim 1 will often not survive examination. What decides whether you still have a patent worth having is whether the drafter built a ladder of narrower, meaningful p…
Pre-grant opposition now has a fee and a filter in front of it
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.
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.