How to Check Your Indian Patent Application Status on InPASS (2026 Guide)

You can check your Indian patent application status on InPASS, the Indian Patent Office’s public search portal. Open the Application Status tab, enter your application number, type the code shown, and click Show Status. The result tells you where the application stands, from filing to grant, and shows the dates your deadlines run from, which you should confirm against the filed papers.

This guide covers applications filed at the Indian Patent Office under the Patents Act 1970. It is written for inventors, startups, in-house teams and foreign counsel with Indian filings. If you want to search Indian patents by keyword or applicant name instead, see our guide to Indian patent search on InPASS.

Quick answer: Go to the InPASS Application Status tab, enter your application number in the correct format, enter the code and click Show Status. If nothing comes back, the usual causes are a TEMP receipt number, a number in the wrong format, or an application that is not yet published. For what each status label means for your next step, read our status meaning guide.

Find your application number before you search

The portal takes one input: your application number. Applications filed from 1 January 2016 carry a twelve-digit number. Older applications carry a number with slashes, such as 9894/DELNP/2007, the example the portal itself shows. A TEMP number from the e-filing receipt is not an application number and returns no result.

The twelve-digit Indian patent application number format was fixed by the Controller General’s Office Order No. 74 of 2015. Every digit means something, so you can read your own number. The first four digits are the year of filing. The fifth digit is the office: 1 for Delhi, 2 for Mumbai, 3 for Kolkata and 4 for Chennai. The sixth digit is the type of application. The last six digits are a running serial number shared by all four offices.

Source: Office Order No. 74 of 2015, Annexure 1 (verified as of October 2026).

The type codes are: 1 ordinary, 2 ordinary divisional, 3 ordinary patent of addition, 4 convention, 5 convention divisional, 6 convention patent of addition, 7 PCT national phase, 8 PCT national phase divisional, 9 PCT national phase patent of addition. A divisional is a further application carved out of an earlier one. A PCT national phase application is an international application that has entered India.

Older numbers carry letters and slashes, as in the portal’s own example, 9894/DELNP/2007. Enter them exactly as printed on your filing receipt, slashes included. The Office Order says numbers allotted before 2016 continue to be recognised until they are converted to the new pattern.

If your number begins with TEMP, you are holding the e-filing acknowledgement, not the application number. The permanent number is printed on the official filing receipt the office issues after processing. If an agent filed for you, ask the agent for it.

For a PCT application that entered India, use the Indian application number allotted at national phase entry, not the PCT or WO number. The Indian number is on the national phase filing receipt. If you do not have it, ask your Indian agent. WIPO PATENTSCOPE may also list the Indian national phase entry under the international application, but it is not a complete record.

Check your Indian patent application status on InPASS in five steps

Use the steps below to check patent application status in India; you need only the application number. The screenshots below were taken by our team, which confirmed in October 2026 that the portal is unchanged.

Watch the walkthrough: InPASS application status check on YouTube.

1. Open InPASS. The portal has four tabs: Patent Search, Patent E-register, Application Status and Help.
2. Click Application Status, or open the Application Status page directly. The page shows one field, labelled Application Number, and a code field below it.
3. Enter your application number in the format for your filing year. Enter the application number, not the request for examination number.
4. Type the code shown in the image. There is a refresh icon beside it, and a speaker icon.
5. Click Show Status.

Read the result screen

The result has two parts. The top part, Application Details, lists the application’s record. The bottom part, Application Status, shows the current status in one line, with three buttons and a five-stage progress strip under it. The dates in the top part are the ones that matter for deadlines.

Application Details lists the application number, the type, the date of filing, the applicant name, and the title and field of the invention. It then lists the dates: the priority date (the date of an earlier application whose date this one claims), the request for examination date, the publication date, the first examination report date and the reply to FER date. FER is the first examination report; RQ is the request for examination.

For granted patents it adds the certificate issue date and the post-grant journal date. The portal writes dates as day/month/year, so 03/05/2024 is 3 May 2024. The priority date row should be blank where no priority is claimed. Treat any blank row, this one included, as a prompt to check the file, not as proof; confirm from your filing papers whether priority was claimed before you count a deadline from the filing date. A blank Reply to FER Date, for example, may mean no reply is on the public record yet; View Documents or your agent will confirm.

The First Examination Report date is the one to note. Your time to put the application in order runs from the date the report was issued, not from the day you read it. The example above shows a Chennai filing of 4 January 2024 with a report dated 3 May 2024, a reply in November 2024 and a certificate on 24 February 2026. This file was published about two months after filing, which happens only on a request for early publication, and its report issued within two months of the request for examination, which is far faster than the normal route described below; do not take its timeline as typical. What each status label means, and what to do when it says FER Issued or Deemed to be Withdrawn, is covered in our status meaning guide.

The three buttons open the file itself. In our team’s use of the portal, E-Register opens the register entry once a patent is granted, Order(s)/Decision(s) opens the Controller’s orders on the application, and View Documents opens the documents filed, each with its date. The strip below runs Filed, Published, RQ Filed, Under Examination, Disposed, and shows how far the application has travelled. For a granted patent the status line also gives the patent number, which you need for the E-register. A Granted status is the portal’s note that a patent was granted; the E-register entry is the record to rely on. The status line also does not show whether the patent is still in force; the E-register does.

Why your search shows no result

In our team’s experience four things explain most blank results: a TEMP number, an application not yet published, a number in the wrong format, or a secrecy direction in force. Check them in that order. The first and third are fixed in a minute; the second needs patience or a request for early publication on Form 9.

TEMP number. The e-filing receipt number begins with TEMP. In our experience a TEMP number is a common reason for a blank result. Find the permanent number on the official filing receipt and search again.

Not yet published. An application is not open to the public until eighteen months from its filing date or its priority date, whichever is earlier. The office then publishes it, ordinarily within a month [Section 11A; Rule 24]. If you filed recently, the public record may not exist yet. Two other applications are not published at all: one filed with a provisional specification and abandoned because no complete specification followed within twelve months, and one withdrawn at least three months before the eighteen-month date.

You can ask for early publication on Form 9 if your commercial plans need it; the office then publishes ordinarily within a month of the request. From publication until grant you have the same rights as a patentee, though you cannot sue for infringement until the patent is granted. The e-filing fee is Rs 2,500 for an individual, startup, small entity or educational institution and Rs 12,500 where any other applicant is involved (verified as of October 2026).

Wrong format. A pre-2016 number entered without slashes, a twelve-digit number entered with spaces, or a PCT number entered instead of the Indian number will all fail. Copy the number from the filing receipt.

Secrecy direction. Where the Controller has directed that an invention relevant for defence purposes be kept secret, the application is not published while the direction is in force. It may proceed up to the stage of grant, but no patent is granted while the direction stands [Section 35; Section 37]. The office notifies the applicant when the direction is revoked. The request for examination may then be made within six months of revocation if that is later than the usual period, and on revocation the Controller may extend the time for any other step in the application, even where that time has already expired.

Why examination can take time

On the normal route, no rule fixes how long a request waits before it reaches an examiner. An application goes to an examiner only after publication, generally in the order the requests were filed, and the Rules set short periods from then on; a divisional takes its parent’s place in that order. So the wait depends on how many requests are ahead of yours and how fast the office clears them. The Annual Report for 2024-25 does not measure it, but shows why it grew.

Source: CGPDTM Annual Report 2024-25 (verified as of October 2026).

The report explains the gap. In 2023 the office promoted about 370 examiners to Controllers, which helped it reach a record number of final decisions in 2023-24, but the delay in recruiting new examiners increased pendency at the first examination stage. The report expected 407 examiners who joined in January 2025 to begin full examination work in the second half of 2025-26; it does not record whether that happened. A long wait at Awaiting Examination is consistent with that backlog and does not by itself show a problem with your file. Check that the request for examination is on record.

The expedited route is different. The report says that for most expedited cases grant or final disposal comes within an average of about one year from the request, against a period of a few years on the normal route. Expedited examination is available on Form 18A to startups, small entities, applications where every applicant is a natural person and at least one is a woman, and several other categories. It can only be filed online, and unless the application has already been published on an early-publication request or a Form 9 is already on file, the request must be accompanied by a Form 9. The e-filing fee is Rs 8,000 for an individual, startup, small entity or educational institution and Rs 60,000 where any other applicant is involved.

The Form 18A request must be filed within the period for an ordinary request for examination. For applications filed on or after 15 March 2024 that period is 31 months from the priority date or the filing date, whichever is earlier; applications filed before that date keep the earlier period of 48 months [Rule 24B]. An ordinary request already on file can be converted to an expedited one on Form 18A by paying the conversion fee and filing the documents that prove the ground. Our expedited examination guide covers eligibility and cost.

Verify a granted patent on the E-register

Once a patent is granted, the patent E-register in India is the record to check. It shows whether the patent is in force and the renewal fees paid. Open it from the Patent E-register tab or from the E-Register button on the status result. It needs the patent number, not the application number.

The register is kept under the Act and records the patentee, assignments, licences, amendments and revocations. It is open to public inspection and is prima facie evidence of what is entered in it, so investors, licensees and buyers use it to confirm that a patent is alive before a deal [Section 67; Section 72]. The grant itself is entered there with its date, and the fact of grant is published.

Two obligations matter after grant. The term is twenty years from the filing date, or for a PCT national phase patent from the international filing date. Renewal fees fall due from the third year, and each payment is entered in the register. The payment period can be extended by up to six months on request with the fee. A patent on which a renewal fee is not paid within the period, or the extended period, ceases to have effect [Section 53; Rule 80]. Our patent renewal guide sets out the fee schedule and restoration.

A principal patent granted more than two years after filing has renewal fees already due when it is granted. Those fees may be paid within three months from the date the patent is recorded in the register, or within an extended period ending no later than nine months from that date [Section 142(4)]. The extension is asked for on Form 4, with a fee for each month. The office’s Manual states that in its electronic system the patent is recorded in the register on the date of grant. The example above, filed in January 2024 with its certificate issued in February 2026, is likely to be such a case.

The second is the working statement, filed with the office rather than shown on the register. Every patentee and licensee files Form 27 once for each period of three financial years, counted from the financial year after the financial year of grant, within six months of the period ending [Rule 131].

If the statement will be or is late, the Controller may extend the time or condone a delay of up to three months on a Form 4 request; the e-filing fee is Rs 2,000 a month for an individual, startup, small entity or educational institution and Rs 10,000 a month otherwise. Further relief may be available, which our Form 27 guide explains along with what to declare.

What to do with the status you see

The status check is the start, not the end. Four results call for different action: a pending application with no request for examination date, a pending application with a report date, a granted patent, and a blank result.

If the Request for Examination Date row is blank, the public record does not show a request for examination. That is not proof that none was filed. Check the filed Form 18 or Form 18A and its payment receipt, or ask your agent to confirm.

The request is due within 31 months of the priority date or the filing date, whichever is earlier, for applications filed on or after 15 March 2024, and within 48 months for earlier filings; a divisional also has six months from its own filing date if that is later [Section 11B; Rule 24B]. For a PCT national phase application the filing date is the international filing date, not the date the application entered India. If no request is made in time, the application is treated as withdrawn.

If the result shows a First Examination Report date and no reply date, check the date the report was issued on the report itself, then count six months from that date. That is the period to put the application in order [Rule 24B(5)]. Miss the period and the application is deemed abandoned.

The period can be extended by three months on a Form 4 request with the fee, made “before expiry of the period specified herein” [Rule 24B(6)]. Our practice is to file the request within the original six months. The same periods apply on the expedited route.

The Form 4 e-filing fee for that extension is Rs 1,000 a month for an individual, startup, small entity or educational institution and Rs 4,000 a month otherwise; on the expedited route it is Rs 2,000 and Rs 10,000 a month (verified as of October 2026).

If a deadline has already passed, take advice at once. Rule 138 lets the Controller extend a time limit set by the Rules, or condone a delay, by up to six months, on a Form 4 request made within those six months. It does not reach periods fixed by the Act itself, such as the renewal periods for a late grant. The e-filing fee is Rs 10,000 a month for an individual, startup, small entity or educational institution and Rs 50,000 a month otherwise. The power is discretionary and does not reach every missed deadline, so treat it as a possible remedy, not an automatic one.

If the result shows a grant, open the E-register. Check first whether renewal fees that fell due before grant are still to be paid; if the grant came more than two years after filing, they are due within three months of the register entry, and a Form 4 request can extend that to nine months from the entry. Then note the next renewal year and work out the Form 27 cycle from the financial year of grant.

If the result is blank and the number is right, the application is most likely unpublished. Note the filing date, or the priority date if one is claimed, whichever is earlier; add eighteen months, allow a further month for the journal entry, and check again after that. If the delay matters to a launch or a funding round, ask your agent about Form 9.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why does my patent application number start with TEMP?

A TEMP number is the acknowledgement the e-filing system issues when you submit. It is not the application number, and the Application Status tab does not recognise it. The permanent number appears on the official filing receipt after the office processes the submission. If an agent filed for you, ask the agent for the permanent number.

How do I find my application number after filing online?

Look at the official filing receipt from the Indian Patent Office, not the submission acknowledgement. If you filed yourself, log in to the e-filing account and open your application history. For a PCT national phase application, the Indian number is on the national phase receipt; your Indian agent will also have it.

Can I check patent status without an application number?

Only once it is published: ordinarily within a month after eighteen months from the filing or priority date, whichever is earlier, or about a month after a request for early publication; a few applications are never published. Search the Patent Search tab on InPASS by applicant, inventor or title, note the application number, then run the status check. Our InPASS search guide covers the search fields.

How do I check the status of a PCT application in India?

Use the Indian application number allotted at national phase entry, not the PCT or WO number. Numbers allotted from 1 January 2016 have twelve digits, with 7, 8 or 9 as the sixth digit. Older national phase numbers keep their letters and slashes unless the office has converted them. If the application is still in the international phase, there is no Indian record yet; check WIPO PATENTSCOPE.

What if the Request for Examination Date row is blank?

That is not proof none was filed; check your Form 18 or 18A or ask your agent. The request is due within 31 months of the priority or filing date, whichever is earlier (48 months for filings before 15 March 2024). For a PCT national phase application the filing date is the international filing date; a divisional may have longer. If missed, it is treated as withdrawn.

Is my application stuck if it still says Awaiting Examination after a year?

Not necessarily. The Annual Report for 2024-25 records rising pendency at the first examination stage. If a request for examination is on record and was made in time, a long wait fits that backlog. If you qualify and are still within the period for requesting examination, a Form 18A request under Rule 24C moves the application to the expedited queue; ask your agent whether conversion is open.

This article explains how to check Indian patent application status as at October 2026 and is for general information only. It is not legal advice. Government fees, forms and procedures change; confirm current figures with the Indian Patent Office before you act. For advice on your specific application, consult a registered patent agent.