To enter the PCT national phase in India, file Form 1 with the national fee, any English translation and the request for examination on Form 18 within 31 months of the earliest priority date. India does not apply PCT reinstatement, and relief for a missed entry under its own Rules should not be assumed.
This guide is for foreign counsel and in-house teams bringing a PCT application into India. It sets out each deadline under the Indian Patents Act and Rules, the official fees as of October 2026, and what happens if a date is missed. For the international phase seen from India, see our guide to the Patent Cooperation Treaty in India.
Quick answer: The PCT national phase in India must be entered within 31 months from the priority date. File Form 1, pay the national fee, file a verified English translation if the application was either not filed or not published in English, and file Form 18: it is due by the same month-31 date, and we recommend filing it with the entry papers. Form 3 is due within six months of entry, proof of right within six months where you claim by assignment, and, if you appoint an agent, the authorisation within three months of filing the application or document it relates to.
What the PCT national phase in India requires by month 31
By month 31 you must file the national phase application on Form 1, pay the national fee and other fees, and file a verified English translation where one is needed. Any application now entering India within its 31-month period has an international filing date on or after 15 March 2024, so the request for examination falls due by the same date. Where the international filing date is before 15 March 2024, the older 48-month period applies. If the entry requirements are not met in time, the application is deemed withdrawn for India.
The 31 months run from the priority date as the PCT defines it: the filing date of the earliest application whose priority is claimed, or the international filing date if no priority is claimed. Count from the earliest priority, not from the international filing date.
Entry means more than filing Form 1. The national fee must be paid in full, including the fees for excess sheets, excess claims and each further priority. The office will not start processing before the 31 months end unless you ask it to.
If the priority document was not furnished in the international phase, and the office cannot get it from a digital library such as WIPO DAS or from an earlier Indian filing, file it in India by month 31. Whether or not you have to file the priority document itself, file a verified English translation of it by month 31 if the validity of the priority claim matters for patentability, or if the filing date rests on incorporation by reference. If either is missing, the office invites you to file it within three months, and if you still do not, the priority claim is disregarded.
Deadlines at and after entry
After entry, each paper has its own period, and most of them run from the day you file in India, not from the priority date. The table below collects them. Docket each one separately, because the consequences differ: some stop the file from moving, some lead to withdrawal or abandonment, and some are a ground for revoking the patent later.
| Step | Time limit | Form |
| National phase entry, national fee and English translation | 31 months from the priority date (Rule 20(4)(i)) | Form 1 |
| Request for examination | 31 months from the priority date or the filing date, whichever is earlier (Rule 24B(1)(i)); 48 months where the international filing date is before 15 March 2024 | Form 18 |
| Priority document, if not furnished in the international phase and not available from a digital library or an earlier Indian filing | 31 months from the priority date; then 3 months from the office’s invitation (Rule 21) | None |
| Declaration as to inventorship | With the application, or within 1 month of the Indian filing date if the Controller allows it on a Form 4 request (Rule 13(6)) | Form 5 |
| Agent’s authorisation | 3 months from filing (Rule 135(1)) | Form 26 or power of attorney |
| Proof of right, where the applicant claims by assignment | 6 months from the Indian filing date (Rule 10) | None |
| Statement and undertaking on foreign filings | 6 months from the Indian filing date (Rule 12(1A)) | Form 3 |
| Update of the Form 3 statement | 3 months from the first examination report (Rule 12(2)) | Form 3 |
| Putting the application in order for grant | 6 months from the first examination report, extendable by 3 months (Rule 24B(5), (6)) | Form 4 for the extension |
Verified as of October 2026 against the Patents Rules 2003 as amended by the Patents (Amendment) Rules 2024.
A missing authorisation does not lose the application, but the office takes no further action on the file until it arrives. A missing Form 3 is different. Failing to give the Section 8 information is a ground of opposition and of revocation, so treat it as a date you cannot miss. Our guide to Section 8 and Form 3 for PCT national phase applications covers the direction to file a fresh statement and the three-month condonation route.
A PCT Rule 4.17 declaration, in the international request or filed directly with the Indian office, may satisfy the Indian requirements for the inventor’s details, the declaration of inventorship and proof of the right to apply as it stood on the international filing date. An assignment made after that date still needs its own proof. Where such a declaration complies, the office should not ask for further evidence unless it may reasonably doubt that the declaration is true. Check what the international application already contains before you prepare Indian versions. As a precaution, we still file Form 5 at entry, or within one further month if the Controller allows it on a Form 4 request, even where a PCT Rule 4.17 declaration is on file.
Do you need an Indian patent agent?
No. Indian law does not require a foreign applicant to file through a patent agent. It does require an address for service in India, including a postal address and an email address. If you appoint a registered Indian patent agent, the agent files everything electronically and can give the address for service.
If you appoint an agent, file the authorisation on Form 26 or a power of attorney within three months of filing the application or document concerned. If it is not filed in that time, the office takes no action on the application or document concerned until it is. Form 26 must be stamped under the Indian Stamp Act. Form 26 itself carries no official fee.
Without an address for service, the Controller is not obliged to deal with the application or to send you any notice. Give the address on Form 1 at entry.
Translation and amended claims
If the international application was either not filed in English or not published in English, file an English translation at entry. It covers the description, claims as filed, text in the drawings and the abstract. You or a person you authorise must verify that it is correct and complete. A translator’s certificate is not what the rule asks for.
The translation must also cover amendments. If you did not elect India in Chapter II and amended the claims under Article 19, translate the amended claims and any statement filed with them. If you elected India, translate the amendments annexed to the international preliminary examination report. If the translation of the amendments is still missing after the office invites you to file it, the amendments are disregarded.
Amendments made in the international phase can be taken as amendments made before the Indian office, if you so wish. You may also delete claims when you file at entry, following the usual formalities for amended pages. WIPO’s India chapter says the claims fee is counted on the claims in the international application at entry, including any Article 19 or 34 amendments. Confirm with the office how claims deleted at entry are counted before you rely on deletion to cut the fee. Later changes go through the Indian amendment route, explained in our guide to PCT national phase amendments in India. Our guide to Article 19 and Article 34 amendments covers the international side.
The request for examination
File Form 18 within 31 months from the priority date or the filing date, whichever is earlier. Where the international filing date is on or after 15 March 2024, that is the entry deadline, so file Form 18 with the entry papers. Miss it and the application is treated as withdrawn. The three-month extension after the first examination report does not help.
The 31-month period came in with the Patents (Amendment) Rules 2024, in force from 15 March 2024. Applications filed before that date keep the older 48-month period. For a national phase application, the Act treats the international filing date as the filing date in India, so the older period applies where the international filing date is before 15 March 2024.
You can also ask the office to start before the 31 months end, with an express request on Form 18 and a higher fee. It may suit an applicant who wants examination in India to begin early. The office still decides whether to proceed early.
Rule 138 lists no exclusions in its text, but do not docket Form 18 on the footing that it can rescue a missed deadline. The office’s separate correction power excludes this deadline, although that exclusion does not in terms limit Rule 138. The Act treats the application as withdrawn, and we know of no decision applying the 2024 Rule 138 to a late Form 18. The section on missed national phase dates below explains why.
Official fees for national phase entry
Indian official fees come in two columns. The lower column applies to natural persons, startups, small entities and educational institutions. Every other applicant pays the higher column. If any applicant falls in the higher column, the whole filing pays the higher fee. The figures below are for e-filing.
| Fee (e-filing, rupees) | Natural person, startup, small entity or educational institution | Others |
| Form 1, up to 30 sheets and 10 claims | 1,600 | 8,000 |
| Each additional priority claimed | 1,600 | 8,000 |
| Each sheet over 30 | 160 | 800 |
| Each claim over 10 | 320 | 1,600 |
| Form 18, request for examination | 4,000 | 20,000 |
| Form 18, express request before 31 months | 5,600 | 28,000 |
| Form 18A, expedited examination | 8,000 | 60,000 |
| Form 4, extension to put the application in order (per month) | 1,000 | 4,000 |
| Form 4, the same extension after expedited examination (per month) | 2,000 | 10,000 |
| Form 4, extension or condonation under Rule 138 (per month) | 10,000 | 50,000 |
Verified as of October 2026 against the First Schedule as published on IP India’s forms and official fees page (file dated 31 July 2026). Paper filing costs about ten per cent more, and some items, including expedited examination, cannot be filed on paper. Sequence listings are not counted as excess sheets; they are charged separately at 160 or 800 rupees per page, capped at 24,000 or 120,000, and must be e-filed. Form 3, Form 5 and Form 26 carry no official fee. Professional fees are extra.
Foreign applicants are not automatically in the higher column. A foreign natural person pays the lower fee. A foreign company can qualify as a small entity under the investment limits in Indian MSME law, or as a startup if it meets the Startup India turnover and incorporation criteria and files a declaration. A startup, small entity or educational institution must file Form 28 with every document that carries a fee. You can work out the total with our patent fee calculator, and our page on PCT fees in India covers the national phase fees in more detail.
After entry: publication, examination and grant
WIPO publishes the international application promptly after 18 months from the priority date, and the Indian office publishes the national phase application in its journal. Once the application is published and the request for examination is on file, it is referred to an examiner in the order the requests were filed. The Controller then sends you the objections as the first examination report.
You then have six months from the date the report is issued to put the application in order for grant. That period can be extended by three months on a Form 4 request, made before expiry of the period specified in the rule. Filing the request before the first six months end is the safer docketing practice. If you do not comply in time, the application is deemed abandoned. Our guide to a negative written opinion and the Indian examination report covers the response itself.
You can ask for expedited examination on Form 18A, filed electronically. For a PCT application, the ground specific to PCT filings is that India was the International Searching Authority or was elected as the International Preliminary Examining Authority. Other grounds include a startup or small entity applicant. Our guide to choosing India as your PCT search authority explains the PCT ground.
When the patent is granted, its term runs 20 years from the international filing date. Renewal fees that fell due before grant are payable within three months of the grant being recorded in the register, extendable to nine months.
If a national phase date is missed
India gives little room after a missed national phase date. It has told WIPO that it does not apply the PCT reinstatement procedure. The Controller’s general power to correct procedural irregularities expressly excludes entry, the priority document, the request for examination and the period to put the application in order.
The Controller’s separate power to extend time or condone delay, Rule 138, was rewritten in 2024. It applies notwithstanding anything else in the Rules, allows up to six months on a Form 4 request made before those six months end, and the request can be renewed within that period. It lists no exclusions. We know of no decision applying it to a missed entry date or a late Form 18. Do not plan on it. Docket month 31 as the last day.
WIPO’s India chapter of the PCT Applicant’s Guide still describes the older version of Rule 138. It gives one month, not six, and lists national phase entry and the request for examination as excluded. Do not rely on that passage. The exclusion list now sits in the general correction power instead.
A narrow excuse remains for delay caused by war, civil disorder, natural calamity, a general outage of electronic communications or a similar event where you live or have your place of business. The event must have been severe enough to disrupt normal communication there. You must petition the Controller with evidence, and you must have acted as soon as reasonably possible, no later than one month after the situation ended. The delay excused cannot exceed the period the emergency lasted or six months from the deadline, whichever is earlier, and the Controller decides. We know of no decision applying this excuse to a missed entry date. An ordinary docketing or agent error does not qualify. Our analysis of late national phase entry in India sets out the case law, and our guide to late entry across jurisdictions explains what other offices allow.
Frequently Asked Questions
31 months from the priority date, which is the filing date of the earliest application whose priority is claimed, or the international filing date if none is claimed (Rule 20(4)(i)). By then you must file Form 1, pay the national fee and file any English translation. Otherwise the application is deemed withdrawn for India (Rule 22).
It depends on the international filing date. Where it is on or after 15 March 2024, Form 18 is due within 31 months from the priority date or the filing date, whichever is earlier (Rule 24B(1)(i)). Where it is earlier, the older 48 months still apply (Rule 24B(1)(vi)), because for a national phase application the filing date in India is the international filing date.
No. An agent is not required, but an address for service in India, with a postal address and an email address, is (Rule 5). If you appoint a registered Indian patent agent, file Form 26 or a power of attorney within three months of filing the application or document concerned, or the office takes no further action on the file until it is filed (Rule 135(1)).
No. The translation must be verified by the applicant, or by a person the applicant authorises, as correct and complete (Rule 20(3)(b)). It covers the description, claims, drawing text and abstract, plus the Article 19 amended claims and statement if India was not elected, or the amendments annexed to the preliminary examination report if it was (Rule 20(5)).
Within six months from the date you file in India (Rule 12(1A)). Update it within three months of the first examination report (Rule 12(2)). File a fresh statement within two months if the Controller directs it (Rule 12(4)). A delay can be condoned, or time extended, by up to three months on Form 4 (Rule 12(5)).
Do not count on it. Since 15 March 2024, Rule 138 allows up to six months on a Form 4 request made before those six months end, and lists no exclusions. We know of no decision applying it to national phase entry, and India does not apply PCT reinstatement. If month 31 has passed, take advice at once.
This article explains the law on PCT national phase entry in 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 before you file. For advice on your specific invention, consult a registered patent agent.
Sources
- The Patents Act 1970, as amended, IP India.
- The Patents Rules 2003, with the First Schedule (fees), IP India; forms and official fees, IP India.
- Patents (Amendment) Rules 2024, G.S.R. 211(E), 15 March 2024, Gazette of India.
- Patent Cooperation Treaty (Washington 1970, amended 1979, modified 1984 and 2001), WIPO; Regulations under the PCT, in force from 1 January 2026, WIPO.
- PCT Applicant’s Guide, India chapter (national phase), WIPO, updated 25 September 2026.