Request for examination

Filing a patent application does not cause anyone to look at it. Someone has to ask - and pay - for that. Miss the deadline and the application is simply treated as withdrawn.

In simple words

A separate request (Form 18) asking the Patent Office to actually examine your application. Without it, nothing happens.

Think of it as

Joining the queue. Filing gets you a ticket; the request gets you into the line.

Why it matters

This is one of the cruellest deadlines in Indian practice because nothing prompts you. The period was shortened by the 2024 Rules: for applications filed on or after 15 March 2024 it is thirty-one months from the priority date or the filing date, whichever is earlier. Applications filed on or before 14 March 2024 keep the older forty-eight month period.

A simple example

For a PCT national phase application entering India on or after 15 March 2024, the thirty-one month examination deadline can fall on or about the same day as entry itself - so the request often has to be filed immediately.

Common mistake

Assuming the old forty-eight months still applies. For anything filed since March 2024, it does not.

Where it comes from

Patents Rules 2003, rule 24B(1) as substituted by the Patents (Amendment) Rules, 2024; the earlier period is preserved for older filings by rule 24B(1)(vi)