Late PCT National Phase Entry: What Each Office Allows After 30 or 31 Months

Late PCT national phase entry works in some offices, not others. The EPO, the UK and Switzerland let you finish the missed acts on request, with stricter reinstatement behind. The US revives on unintentional delay. Japan takes a late translation unless the miss was intentional. China allows 32 months for a fee. Korea and India offer no assured route.

This guide compares eight offices that Indian applicants and foreign counsel commonly deal with: the United States, the European Patent Office, China, Japan, Korea, the United Kingdom, Switzerland and India. If you have a missed PCT national phase deadline, start with the table. The guide is selective. Germany, for example, can also be entered nationally under its own rules, which this page does not cover. Each section gives the deadline, what a miss does, the remedy with its clock, and the official remedy fee where one applies, as at October 2026.

Quick answer: Check first whether the office has a route that needs no reason, only the missed act and a fee (EPO, UK, Switzerland, China up to 32 months). If that route has closed, look at the stricter route and its outer time limit. In Korea and India, treat the date as final.

When is the PCT national phase deadline?

The deadline is 30 or 31 months from the priority date, depending on the office. Where the application claims priority, the date runs from the earliest priority claimed; otherwise it runs from the international filing date. Missing the date ends the application only in that office. Entries made in time elsewhere are not affected.

The PCT sets 30 months and lets each office allow longer, and a missed date ends the international application’s effect in that State as if a national application were withdrawn. The WIPO time limits table lists the period for every office, and its lead note points to each office’s national chapter for the remedies.

Two checks come before any remedy. First, recount from the earliest priority date that still stood when the deadline ran. Withdrawing, correcting or adding a priority claim in time during the international phase moves the date only if it changes the earliest priority date that counts, and adding an earlier claim moves it earlier. A change made after the deadline has passed cannot revive it. Second, if the last day fell on a day the office was not open for business, ordinary mail was not delivered, or (where national law provides) it was an official holiday at one of the office’s sites or in part of the State, the period runs to the next day on which none of these applies.

Late PCT national phase entry remedies at a glance

The table below shows each office’s entry deadline, the main remedy after a miss and the clock for that remedy. “No reason needed” means the office does not ask why you were late; it needs the missed act and a fee. Read the office section before acting, because each remedy has conditions the table cannot carry.

Verified as of October 2026.

How PCT reinstatement works, and why it is not everywhere

With PCT Rule 49.6 reinstatement, an office that applies the rule must, on your request, restore a missed entry if it finds the delay was unintentional or, where the office has chosen the stricter test, that it happened in spite of the due care required by the circumstances. The request and the missed acts are due within two months of the cause ending, and no later than 12 months after the deadline.

Whichever period ends first applies, though an office’s own law may allow a later request. The request must state the reasons for the miss. The office may require a fee and a declaration or other evidence, and it cannot refuse without first letting you comment. The same rule applies where the office was elected under Chapter II. Offices whose law conflicted with the rule in 2002, and that told WIPO so in time, need not apply it while the conflict lasts, and several still rely on that. The WIPO list of these notices (status 3 September 2026) names China, Germany, India and Korea among them.

An opt-out from Rule 49.6 does not mean the office has no remedy. The PCT still requires each State to excuse delay for reasons its own law admits, and that covers national reinstatement, restoration and further processing. China is the clearest example: it does not apply Rule 49.6, yet it allows entry up to 32 months on a fee.

Separately, if papers sent by registered mail at least five days before a PCT deadline were delayed or lost, the delay can be excused on proof of posting. The mail must have gone by airmail, unless surface mail normally arrives within two days or there is no airmail service. If the papers were lost, a substitute copy is allowed once you prove it is identical to the original.

The evidence is due within one month of when you noticed, or should have noticed, and no later than six months after the deadline. Some offices accept courier records too. This covers time limits the PCT itself sets, such as 30 months.

United States: revival on unintentional delay

The United States requires a copy of the international application and the basic national fee within 30 months, and that period cannot be extended. If they are missing, the application is abandoned for the United States. You can then petition to revive it, stating that the entire delay was unintentional.

The two acts that must be on time are the copy (unless the International Bureau has already sent it or the application was filed with the USPTO) and the basic national fee. Other items, such as an English translation or the inventor’s oath, can follow when the USPTO sends a notice; a late translation carries a processing fee. To revive a PCT national stage application, the petition must include the missed reply, the petition fee and a statement that “the entire delay in filing the required reply from the due date for the reply until the filing of a grantable petition” was unintentional. The USPTO may ask for more information where it doubts the delay was unintentional.

The rule sets no deadline for the petition. But the statement covers the whole delay, including the time you took after discovering the miss, and the petition fee rises once the delay passes two years (USD 2,260 up to two years and USD 3,000 after, with lower small and micro entity rates). File as soon as you can sign the statement. If revival is refused, a request for reconsideration is due within two months of the decision, or any period the decision sets, and unless the decision says otherwise that period can be extended. (US rules read as published in the 1 July 2025 edition of the Code of Federal Regulations.)

European Patent Office: further processing first, then re-establishment

At the EPO, the entry acts are due at 31 months. If the translation, the examination request or the filing, search or designation fee is missing, the application is deemed withdrawn and the EPO sends a communication. You then have two months from that communication to request further processing of the Euro-PCT application: do the missed act and pay the fee. No reason is needed.

The 31-month acts are any translation needed (none for an application published in English, French or German), specifying the documents to proceed on, the filing fee (with any page fee), the search fee where a supplementary search is due, any exhibition certificate and, where their own periods have already ended, the designation fee, the examination request and fee, and the third-year renewal fee. Further processing costs EUR 315, or 50% of any fee paid late. If you think nothing was missed, you can instead ask the EPO for a decision within the same two months.

Re-establishment of rights is ruled out for any time limit that further processing can cure, so it cannot be used for the 31-month acts directly. It lies instead against the missed further processing period. You must show that period was missed “in spite of all due care required by the circumstances”, and file within two months of the cause ending and at the latest one year after the further processing period expired. Within those two months you must also do the missed act, pay the fee (EUR 790; the request does not count as filed until it is paid) and set out the grounds and facts in writing. If the application was published, anyone who, in a designated State, used the invention in good faith or made effective and serious preparations to use it between the loss of rights and the mention of re-establishment in the European Patent Bulletin may continue that use without payment, in the course of their business.

The EPO also applies PCT Rule 49.6 on the due care standard to the translation and the filing fee, within two months of the cause ending and no later than 12 months after the 31-month date. WIPO’s EP chapter notes that this helps only once the further processing period has expired. A third-year renewal fee falling due by 31 months follows its own rule: it can still be paid with a 50% surcharge within six months after the 31-month date, and after that only re-establishment is available.

Belgium, France, Greece, Ireland, the Netherlands and several other States can be reached only through the EPO. Germany also has a national route. Switzerland and the UK can be covered either nationally, as below, or through the EPO at 31 months, where the EPO remedies apply.

China: a 32-month window, then force majeure only

China’s entry deadline is 30 months from priority. If you miss it, you can still enter up to 32 months by paying a grace fee (CNY 1,000). To get an entry date you must file the entry statement in Chinese, pay the fees and file any Chinese translation of the description and claims. Other items can follow.

If entry is not made by 32 months, or those three items are still missing then, the application’s effect in China ends. The Implementing Regulations (2023) then exclude restoration for other justified reasons, but not restoration for force majeure.

So after 32 months, China leaves only force majeure: an irresistible event that caused the delay. The request is due within two months of the obstacle ending, and within two years of the missed deadline, with reasons, any supporting evidence and the missed acts. WIPO’s China chapter describes force majeure restoration as applying after the entry acts are done; the 2023 Regulations put it more widely, and they govern.

Japan: a late translation unless the miss was intentional

Japan’s period is 30 months. If the Japanese translation of the description and claims is not filed in time, the application is deemed withdrawn. You can still file it late, within two months from when you became able to and no later than one year after the period, unless the Japan Patent Office finds the miss intentional.

The late filing covers the translations of the description, claims, drawings and abstract, with a written statement of reasons and the restoration fee (JPY 212,100). Overseas applicants must act through an agent in Japan, and the office may ask for proof of the reasons.

Japan also offers a short extension before the deadline. If you file the national-phase document in the last two months of the 30-month period, you may file the translation within two months of that filing.

Not every missing item ends the application. For a late national-phase document, abstract translation or fee, the Commissioner may order an amendment within a set period, and may dismiss the application if the order is not met. The translation of the description and claims is the act that causes withdrawal.

Korea: a one-month translation extension, if you ask in time

Korea’s period is 31 months. The Korean translation of the description and claims must be filed by then, or the application is deemed withdrawn. Korea will give one more month for the translation if you ask for it in the national-phase document filed during the last month. After the deadline, Korea offers no reinstatement.

Korea does not apply PCT Rule 49.6, and WIPO’s Korea chapter states that the office does not excuse any missed national-phase deadline. The Patent Act’s general relief for delays beyond your control covers only appeal and retrial periods.

A missing or defective national-phase document is different: the office orders an amendment, and the application can be invalidated only if that order is not met. The extension request is the one way to gain time. It must be made before the 31 months end, and it must be made in the document itself.

United Kingdom: extension first, reinstatement second

The UK period is 31 months. If any needed English translation is not filed or the fee is not paid by then, the application is taken to be withdrawn. You can get a two-month extension as of right on Patents Form 52 (GBP 175), asked for within two months after the deadline, and only once. Further extensions are discretionary.

Each discretionary extension is requested on Form 52 with evidence and the fee, no later than two months after the period as last extended expired. Where the translation of the application and the fee were filed in time but a translation of an amendment is missing, the office sends a notice and you have three months from it. Reinstatement is available only once no extension remains, and the office must be satisfied that the failure was unintentional.

The reinstatement request goes on Patents Form 14 (GBP 200) within 12 months of the application ending, with evidence, and the 12 months cannot be extended. If the office is not satisfied, you have one month from its notice to ask to be heard. If reinstatement is ordered, you must do the missed act within the period the order sets, at least two months, or the application is withdrawn again. If the application was published, notice of the request is published, and WIPO’s UK chapter notes that third-party terms apply to the gap between termination and that notice. So the order is: extension as of right, then a discretionary extension, then reinstatement.

Switzerland: further processing, then re-establishment

Switzerland’s period for entry at the Swiss office is 30 months. If the entry acts are not done, the application is treated as withdrawn for Switzerland. You can request further processing within two months of the Swiss office’s notice of the miss, and at the latest six months after the deadline, by doing the missed act and paying the fee (CHF 100). No reason is needed.

The entry acts include naming the inventor, paying the filing fee, filing any translation into a Swiss official language and, where it applies, the source disclosure the Swiss rules require. An applicant with no residence or seat in Switzerland must name a Swiss address for service within the 30 months; if it does not, the office sets two months, and if that is missed the office will not process the application. The rules do not exclude further processing for this deadline. WIPO’s Swiss chapter runs the two months from when you became aware of the miss; the Patents Act runs them from receipt of the office’s notice, and the statute, not the guide, is the binding text.

If further processing is no longer open, re-establishment needs prima facie evidence that you were prevented from meeting the deadline through no fault of your own. It is due within two months of the cause ending, and at the latest one year after the deadline, with the missed act done, the facts stated and the fee paid (CHF 500). The Swiss office also acts for Liechtenstein.

India: no reinstatement, and the six-month extension is untested

India’s period is 31 months. The national phase application on Form 1, the national fee and any needed English translation, verified as correct and complete, are due by then, or the application is deemed withdrawn. Pay the full claims fee with the entry, because an underpayment can lead to the application being treated as not filed. India does not apply PCT Rule 49.6.

The Controller’s general power to correct procedural irregularities does not reach the entry deadline. Rule 138, as substituted in March 2024, lets the Controller extend a time or condone a delay for up to six months on Form 4, in one or more requests made before the six months expire, and it lists no exclusions. The official fee is INR 10,000 a month for natural persons, startups, small entities and educational institutions, and INR 50,000 a month for others, filed online.

Do not plan on Rule 138. Earlier decisions allowed at most a one-month extension for entry under older versions of the rule. In 2026 the Delhi High Court, on an entry filed in 2010 nearly four months late, called the entry deadline mandatory and non-extendable and found the then one-month Rule 138 neither invoked nor applicable. It did not consider the 2024 rule. We have found no reported decision applying the 2024 rule to a missed entry date, and WIPO’s India chapter still describes the earlier rule, which excluded entry.

A narrow excuse may also apply to delay caused by war, revolution, civil disorder, strike, natural calamity, a general unavailability of electronic communication services or a like reason in the locality where you reside or have your place of business (Rule 6(6)). The Controller may excuse it on a petition with a statement and evidence, if the situation was severe enough to disrupt normal communication in that area and you acted as soon as reasonably possible, and no later than one month after it ended. The delay excused cannot exceed the period of the emergency or six months from the deadline, whichever is earlier. It is discretionary and, like Rule 138, untested for a missed entry date. The India late entry guide covers the case law, and the India national phase guide covers the normal entry requirements.

What to do first after a missed deadline

Act on the day you find the miss. Recount the deadline, then identify which remedy each office offers and what starts its clock. File the missed act with the request where the rule requires both together. Record the facts behind the miss while they are fresh, in case the office asks for them.

1. Recount from the earliest priority date and check for an office closure or mail failure on the last day.
2. Check whether the office has sent a communication. At the EPO and in Switzerland the clock for further processing runs from the office’s notice, but in Switzerland it ends six months after the deadline in any event.
3. Use the route that needs no reason first where one exists: EPO further processing, the UK extension, Swiss further processing, Chinese entry up to 32 months.
4. For a due care, no-fault or force majeure case (EPO, Switzerland, China), collect the docketing records and the timeline of who knew what and when.
5. Decide office by office. Most remedies carry an official fee on top of translation and local counsel costs (a force majeure restoration request in China carries no request fee, though the missed entry fees must still be paid), and losing one office does not affect entries made elsewhere. A lost Euro-PCT application, though, takes with it every State reachable only through the EPO.

Do not confuse this with a missed 12-month priority year, which is a different problem with different remedies; see the guide to a missed 12-month PCT deadline. For the stages of a PCT application, see the overview of the Patent Cooperation Treaty in India and the guide to the international and national phases.

Frequently Asked Questions

This article explains the law on late PCT national phase entry, including the position before seven offices outside India, 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 and the office concerned before you file. For advice on your specific application, consult a registered patent agent.

Sources

1. Patent Cooperation Treaty and Regulations under the PCT, World Intellectual Property Organization, Regulations as in force from 1 January 2026.
2. Time Limits for Entering National/Regional Phase and the PCT Applicant’s Guide, National Phase, WIPO.
3. European Patent Convention, Articles 121 and 122 and Rules 112, 135, 136, 159 and 160, European Patent Office, as published by the EPO.
4. Patents Act 1977, section 20A, and Patents Rules 2007, legislation.gov.uk, up to date to 31 October 2026.
5. Patents Rules 2003, Rules 6, 20, 22, 137 and 138, Office of the Controller General of Patents, Designs and Trade Marks, consolidated text read October 2026.