Patent Publication and Examination

The patent application is automatically published after a period of 18 months from the date of filling the application for making it a prior art. Prior art acts as evidence that your invention is already known. In case the applicant is desirous of an early publication, he/she can file under Form 9 requesting for an early publication and by paying the requisite fee provided in Table I of the First Schedule. (See Rule 7 of the Patent Rules, 2003).

Once the patent is filled, the applicant can file for examination with a period of 48 months from the date of filling the application by Form 18/Form 18A (Request for Examination) by paying an examination fee mentioned in Table I of the First Schedule. (See Rule 7 of the Patent Rules, 2003). In case no request for examination is filed within the aforesaid period, the application is considered to be abandoned.

Once the controller at the Patent Office receives the receipt of the request for examination, he/she examines the report on the basis of Section 12 & 13 of the Patent Act, 1970 and if there are any objections, a FER (First Examination Report) is issued to the applicant which states all the mistakes and errors that were made by the applicant in the patent application. The applicant is given a period of 6 months to rectify the mistakes and send the appropriate response to the controller.

Once a patent application is filed with the patent office, patent applicants are required to submit request for early publication of patent application in addition to request for patent examination. Once a patent examination request is filed, the patent office examines the patent application in accordance with patent procedure and provides a patent examination report (patent office action) to the patent applicants, which contains one or more objections relating to novelty, inventive step (non-obviousness), industrial application, sufficiency of disclosure and formal requirements.

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