Indian Patent Status

In today’s competitive and innovation-driven environment, protecting your invention through the Indian patent system is an important legal and commercial step. However, merely filing a patent application is not enough. One must vigilantly monitor the application’s status at every stage to ensure that all deadlines are met and no rights are lost due to oversight.

This guide explains every status an Indian patent application may reflect on the IP India portal, what each one means, and what actions (if any) the applicant needs to take.

🔍 When is an Indian Patent Application Published?

As per Indian Patent Law, a patent application is ordinarily published after 18 months from the date of filing or priority date, whichever is earlier.

However, applications are not published in the following scenarios:

1. A secrecy direction is imposed by the Indian Patent Office (under Section 35).

2. The application is abandoned under Section 9(1) – where a complete specification was not filed within 12 months of the provisional application.

3. The application is voluntarily withdrawn at least three months prior to the 18-month period.

Once published, the status of your application begins evolving. Each change in status represents a milestone, a deadline, or an action point.

Indian Patent Application Status:

Below is a breakdown of statuses commonly seen on the Indian patent application tracking system (IPAIRS), grouped into logical stages for clarity.

1) Application Does Not Exist or not yet published:

If 18 months have not lapsed from the date of filing of the patent application or priority date, this is the status you can expect. You can wait till the 18 months get over for the application to get published.

2) Application Published:

After applying, the application is published by the IPO for public inspection in an official journal. It happens automatically after 18 months from the application filing date or the priority date, whichever is earlier. Only complete applications are published.

3) Application Awaiting Exam:

This status shows up when the applicant has filed the ‘Request for Examination,’ and the application is waiting to be picked up for the examination.

4) Application Examined (FER issued):

The controller gives a FER (First Examination Report), and we must submit a response within six months from the date of the FER. An extension of three months is available, failing which the application is abandoned.

5) Application in Amended Stage:

The status shows up after submission of the response to the FER or hearing, in case you have submitted the amendment in your application.

6) Abandoned u/s 9(1):

It means that the application is in the abandoned state due to the non-filing of a complete specification within 12 months from the filing date of the provisional specification. The application cannot be revived once abandoned.

7) Abandoned u/s 21(1):

If the applicant fails to put in the application for a grant within six months of the issuance of FER, it gets abandoned. Once abandoned, we cannot revive the application.

8) Application Refused u/s 15:

When the controller is satisfied that the application does not comply with the requirement of the Indian patent act, it stands refused u/s 15.

9) Application Withdrawn U/R 26:

When the applicant has filed a request to withdraw the application voluntarily. A request for withdrawing the application under sub-sec (4) of Sec 11B is made in Form 29. The request can be made within 48 months from the date of priority or filing, whichever is earlier. Further, there is no exception or extension of the time available under the law. One can claim a 90% refund of examination fees from the patent office before FER is issued.

10) Deemed to be withdrawn U/S 11B (4):

It means the RFE (Request for Examination) of the patent application was not filed within 48 months from the date of priority or the date of the application filing (whichever is earlier). In such cases, the application shall be treated as withdrawn by the applicant.

11) Granted:

It means that your patent application has overcome all the objections. Thus, the patent is granted and published in the patent gazette. After the patent is granted, it must be renewed annually by paying the renewal fee. The renewal duration for patents in India is 20 years from the filing date.

Final note:

Missing the patent timelines can prove lethal for your patent application. For that, one needs to understand and be completely aware of the current stage of one’s patent application. No statutory remedy is available to deal with the missed deadlines. The applicants need to be more vigilant. And also fully aware of their patent application timelines to retain legal rights over their invaluable inventions. You can visit the IPindia link to see your application status.