IP Intelligence › What Changed › New CRI Guidelines replace the 2017 version, and cover AI fo
What changed · 29 July 2025
New CRI Guidelines replace the 2017 version, and cover AI for the first time
What changed
The Controller General notified Revised Guidelines for Examination of Computer Related Inventions on 29 July 2025, after drafts in March and June 2025. They supersede the 2017 Guidelines.
Why it matters
Three things changed materially. There is now a step-wise assessment methodology for section 3(k), with separate tracks for mathematical methods, business methods, algorithms and computer programmes per se. There is dedicated, first-time treatment of AI, machine learning, deep learning, blockchain and quantum computing, including sufficiency of disclosure - an AI model has to be described specifically enough to be reproducible. And they confirm that a programme running on a general-purpose computer can be allowable where the specification shows a technical solution to a technical problem by technical means; novel hardware is not required. The Guidelines also address AI-generated versus AI-assisted inventions.
Who should care
Anyone filing software, AI or data-processing inventions in India, and anyone drafting them.
What you should do
Re-read your drafting template. Articulate the technical problem and the technical effect explicitly, include flowcharts and hardware context, file paired method and system claims, and expand AI disclosure to cover architecture, training approach and implementation. If an examiner applies a novel hardware requirement, that comes from the superseded 2016 Guidelines and has been criticised judicially.
Practitioner articles written between March and June 2025 describe these Guidelines as a draft. Those pre-date the 29 July 2025 notification. The Guidelines are guidance, not law - they remain subordinate to the Act and the Rules.
Sources & further reading
- Revised Guidelines for Examination of Computer Related Inventions, notified 29 July 2025 — CGPDTM, via Press Information Bureau
- IP India - guidelines for examination of patent applications
- Section 3, Patents Act 1970 - what are not inventions — Official IP India section text
Related
Section 3(k)
Section 3(k) excludes a mathematical method, a business method, a computer programme **per se**, and algorithms from being inventions.
Software claimed as software
You cannot patent a computer programme per se. You can, on current Indian authority, patent an invention that happens to be implemented in software if it delivers a …
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.