How to File a PCT International Application from India (2026 Guide)

A PCT application from India lets you claim a filing date in 159 countries with one filing, and decide later where to spend on patents. When you file from India, four choices shape the cost and the legal risk of that application: Section 39 clearance, where you file, which fee reductions you can claim, and which search authority you pick.

This guide explains each choice of PCT filing in India in plain terms, with the official fees as of October 2026. If your PCT application is coming into India from abroad, our guide to PCT national phase entry in India covers that route instead.

Quick answer: Indian nationals and residents can file a PCT application at the Indian Patent Office or directly with WIPO. If you live in India, clear Section 39 first: file in India and wait six weeks with no secrecy direction, or get a permit on Form 25. The international filing fee is USD 1,667 for up to 30 sheets, less a reduction if the request is filed in character-coded electronic format. An individual who is an Indian national living in India pays 10 per cent of what is left, if every co-applicant and every beneficial owner also qualifies, and no applicant is bound to assign or license the invention to someone who does not.

What a PCT application gives you, and what it does not

A PCT application gives you one filing date that counts in every member country, a search report, and a written opinion on whether your invention looks new and inventive. It does not give you a patent anywhere. You still have to enter each country you want, usually at 30 or 31 months from your priority date.

The international phase has three parts. First, a search authority looks for prior art and sends you its search report and written opinion. Second, WIPO publishes your application soon after 18 months from the priority date. Third, you can amend your claims or ask for a further examination before the national phase starts.

The written opinion is not binding. Each national office applies its own law and can reach a different view. What the international phase really buys you is time. You get about two and a half years from your first filing to test the market, raise funds and choose your countries. For a fuller view of how the two phases fit together, see PCT international phase and national phase and our overview of the Patent Cooperation Treaty in India.

Who can file a PCT application from India, and where

You can file a PCT application from India if you are an Indian national or resident. If there are several applicants, it is enough that one of them is an Indian national or resident. You can file at the Indian Patent Office as receiving Office (RO/IN) or directly with WIPO’s International Bureau (RO/IB).

At RO/IN, your application goes to one of the four patent offices in Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata. Which one is yours depends on where the first applicant lives or has a place of business, or where the invention was made. Applicants with no base in India use the office covering their address for service.

At the Indian Patent Office you do not need a patent agent, but you do need an address for service in India. If an agent acts for you, you appoint the agent by signing the request or a separate power of attorney. A general power of attorney deposited with the receiving Office can be used for later applications you file with that Office: you refer to it in each request and attach an unsigned copy, unless the Office waives the copy. WIPO publishes a model form for it. WIPO’s guide refers you to the Indian Patent Office on whether it waives the separate power of attorney or the copy of a general one. WIPO’s International Bureau, as receiving Office, waives the separate power of attorney for an agent named in the request at filing. It does not waive it for an agent appointed later, for papers such an agent files, or for any notice of withdrawal (of the application, a designation, a priority claim or a demand).

Section 39: clear it before you file

If you live in India, you need a written permit from the Controller before you file, or cause someone else to file, a patent application outside India. You do not need one if you filed the same invention in India at least six weeks earlier and no secrecy direction is in force on it.

The rule does not apply where the invention was first filed outside India by someone who lives outside India.

That gives you two lawful routes:

• File in India first, with a provisional or a complete specification, and wait six weeks. If no secrecy direction has been given, or any direction has been revoked, you are clear.
• Ask the Controller for a permit on Form 25 before you file abroad. The fee is ₹1,600 for a natural person, startup, small entity or educational institution and ₹8,000 for others on e-filing. The Controller decides within 21 days of your request. For inventions relevant to defence or atomic energy, the 21 days run from receipt of the Central Government’s consent.

Getting this wrong is serious. The Indian application is deemed abandoned, and a patent granted on it is liable to be revoked. The breach is itself a ground of revocation. It is also an offence punishable with up to two years’ imprisonment, a fine, or both. Since 1 June 2026, the criminal penalty does not apply where the Central Government is of the opinion that the invention was not relevant for defence or atomic energy at the time. Abandonment and revocation are unaffected.

Treat a PCT filing at the Indian Patent Office as needing the same clearance; our article on ten PCT mistakes in India explains why. In practice, WIPO’s International Bureau does not check Indian law when you file there, so a breach can go unnoticed until it matters. Our pages on the foreign filing licence and on secrecy directions cover both rules in detail.

Filing at the Indian Patent Office

The Indian Patent Office, as receiving Office, checks your application and sends copies to WIPO and to your search authority. A filing there runs in five steps:

1. Clear Section 39, as described above.
2. Prepare and sign the request form (PCT/RO/101), with the applicant and inventor details and any priority claim, and the description, claims, abstract and any drawings.
3. File, preferably through ePCT, naming the Indian Patent Office as receiving Office and choosing your search authority.
4. Pay the transmittal, international filing and search fees within one month of the date your application is received, and keep the receipts.
5. If you claim priority, arrange the priority document within 16 months of the priority date (see the last section).

You can file in English or Hindi; the request form itself is in English. None of the eight search authorities open to you accepts Hindi, and India searches only in English. A Hindi filing therefore needs an English translation within one month of the date the application is received. If you miss it, the office will invite you to file it late (and may charge a late fee); if you still do not, the application is treated as withdrawn.

How each fee is paid:

• Transmittal fee. Through ePCT there is no transmittal fee. For paper filing it is ₹3,500 for a natural person, startup, small entity or educational institution and ₹17,600 for others. The fee schedule also lists ₹3,200 and ₹16,000 for electronic filing other than ePCT, although WIPO’s guide for India shows no fee for any electronic filing.
• International filing fee. USD 1,667 for up to 30 sheets, plus USD 19 for each sheet over 30, less any reduction. You pay it in rupees by bank transfer (NEFT or RTGS) to the Controller General’s account, quoting the international application number. The office’s October 2026 fee letter converted the dollar amount at a rate the bank fixes every fortnight, with a loading of ₹2 per dollar, and added a charge of ₹350 (₹500 above USD 2,000). These are the office’s payment practice, not fees set by the Rules.
• Search fee. If India is your search authority, pay it through the Indian Patent Office e-filing system. If another authority searches, pay it by bank transfer in the same way as the filing fee.

ePCT filing is accepted and is the simplest route. The PCT Section of the Indian Patent Office is in Delhi and can be reached at patentin-pct@nic.in.

Filing directly with WIPO instead

You can also file through ePCT with WIPO’s International Bureau as receiving Office. You pay in Swiss francs, euros or US dollars. The International Bureau charges a transmittal fee of CHF 100, EUR 107 or USD 125. You do not pay it if you qualify for the 90 per cent reduction described below.

The search authorities open to you at RO/IN remain open at the International Bureau. The PCT rules make an authority competent there whenever it would have been competent at the receiving Office of any applicant’s country, so a co-applicant from another country can add more.

One difference matters for priority. The International Bureau will consider a request to restore a missed priority claim, applying both the “unintentional” and the “due care” tests. Restoration is possible only if the PCT application is filed within two months after the 12-month priority year ends, and the request must be made within those same two months. The Indian Patent Office as receiving Office does not accept such requests. India has also told WIPO that it does not give effect to a priority restored by another office, so a restoration at the International Bureau should not be relied on for India.

The fee reductions you can claim

There are three separate reductions on PCT fees in India: an e-filing cut for everyone, WIPO’s 90 per cent cut for qualifying individuals, and the Indian Patent Office’s lower fees for smaller applicants. Each has its own rules, so check them one by one before you file.

E-filing reductions come first. Filing electronically cuts the international filing fee for every applicant. At RO/IN the cut is USD 251 if the request is in character-coded format. It is USD 376 if the description, claims and abstract are in character-coded format too.

The 90 per cent reduction is next. The international filing fee, including the fee for sheets over 30, is cut by 90 per cent where the applicant is a natural person who is a national of, and lives in, a State on WIPO’s eligibility list. India is on the current list. Three conditions apply:

• For Indian applicants it applies to individuals only. The test looks at each applicant named in the request: a natural person can qualify, a company or other legal entity cannot.
• If there are several applicants, every one of them must qualify.
• At filing, no beneficial owner of the application may be someone who would not qualify.

Under a 2017 PCT Assembly Understanding, the cut is intended only for applicants who are the sole and true owners of the application and under no obligation to assign, grant, convey or license the rights in the invention to anyone who is not eligible. An inventor who must assign the invention to an Indian employer company, for example, cannot claim the cut.

The 90 per cent is worked out after the e-filing reduction. The same cut applies to the USD 251 handling fee if you later file a Chapter II demand.

The Indian lower fee column is the third. The Indian Patent Office charges lower search and examination fees to natural persons, startups, small entities and educational institutions. This is separate from WIPO’s reduction, so a startup that cannot claim the 90 per cent still pays the lower Indian search fee. If any applicant falls outside these categories, for example a company filing jointly with an individual, the whole filing pays the higher fee.

Verified as of October 2026 against the First and Fifth Schedules to the Patents Rules and WIPO’s PCT Applicant’s Guide, India and International Bureau chapters (updated 25 September 2026). Professional fees are extra. National phase fees are covered in PCT fees in India.

Choosing your search authority

From RO/IN you can choose any of eight search authorities: Austria, Australia, China, the European Patent Office, India, Japan, Sweden and the United States. India’s search fee is ₹2,500 or ₹10,000, depending on the applicant. It can search only applications filed at the Indian or Iranian receiving Office, at the Japanese receiving Office if filed in English, or at the International Bureau by an applicant entitled to use one of those.

The authority you pick also shapes your options later. If you want the European Patent Office as your examining authority in Chapter II, the search must have been done by the EPO, Austria or Sweden. China, Japan and the United States examine only where they did the search. Austria, Australia, India and Sweden have no such condition for RO/IN applications.

Choosing India as search or examining authority also gives you a ground for expedited examination when the application later enters India. The trade-offs between authorities, including cost, language and timing, are set out in choosing an International Searching Authority from India and designating India as ISA.

After filing: amendments, Chapter II and the 12-month window

After the search report arrives, you can amend the claims once under Article 19. You can also file a demand for international preliminary examination, called Chapter II, which lets you amend the claims, description and drawings and argue with an examiner. Both have fixed time limits, set out below.

A demand filed late is treated as if it had not been filed. The choice between the two tools is covered in our guides to Article 19 and Article 34 amendments and Chapter II demand strategy.

If you want your PCT application to claim priority from an earlier Indian filing, you must file it within 12 months of that filing. Miss the window and the earlier date cannot be claimed through RO/IN, because it does not accept restoration requests. You can still file the PCT application without the priority claim, but anything disclosed in between may count as prior art. The options, and how post-dating an Indian application works, are explained in our guides to the missed 12-month PCT deadline and post-dating in India.

Treat the 31-month deadline for India as fixed. India does not apply the PCT’s reinstatement procedure, and the Controller’s general power to correct procedural irregularities does not reach this deadline.

A separate power, Rule 138, lets the Controller extend a time set by the Rules, or condone a delay, by up to six months on a Form 4 request with a fee, made before the six months end. It lists no exclusions, but do not plan on it for national phase entry: docket 31 months as the last day. WIPO’s India guide still describes an older version of this rule: it gives one month, not six, and says the extension does not apply to national phase entry. That exclusion now sits in the Controller’s general correction power instead. Our analysis of late national phase entry in India covers India’s position, and our guide to late entry across jurisdictions explains what other offices allow.

When the PCT route fits, and when it does not

The PCT route suits you when you want protection in three or more countries, or when you need time before choosing. If you want only one or two countries, in our experience filing directly in each within 12 months under the Paris Convention is usually faster and cheaper. Our comparison of direct filing and the PCT works through the trade-offs.

Plan for the cost at 30 or 31 months. National fees, translations and local attorneys’ fees fall due around the 30 or 31-month deadline in every country you enter.

Claiming priority and proving it are separate steps. If your PCT application claims an Indian filing, the certified copy is due within 16 months of the priority date. You can file it yourself, ask the Indian Patent Office to prepare and send it if you filed the PCT application there, or, where the Indian Patent Office has made it available through WIPO’s Digital Access Service, ask WIPO to retrieve it before international publication. The Indian Patent Office charges no fee when it makes the copy available through DAS. The steps are set out in WIPO DAS in India.

Frequently Asked Questions

This article explains PCT filing from 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 WIPO before you file. For advice on your specific invention, consult a registered patent agent.

Sources

1. The Patents Act 1970, as amended (Sections 35, 39, 40, 64, 118), IP India; Section 118 proviso inserted by the Jan Vishwas (Amendment of Provisions) Act 2026 (Act 8 of 2026), Schedule, serial 35, in force from 1 June 2026 under S.O. 2846(E).
2. The Patents Rules 2003, with the First and Fifth Schedules, IP India.
3. Patent Cooperation Treaty and Regulations under the PCT, in force from 1 January 2026, WIPO.
4. PCT Applicant’s Guide, India chapter, Annexes C to E, WIPO, updated 25 September 2026.
5. PCT Applicant’s Guide, International Bureau chapter, Annex C, WIPO, updated 25 September 2026; 2017 PCT Assembly Understanding on the fee reduction, WIPO.