Patent application: the date secured first,
the claims drafted to survive examination.

Our fee starts at ₹14,999 for the patentability search and a provisional specification, with the complete specification, examination request and examination report reply on the higher plans. Government fees for an individual, a DPIIT-recognised startup, a small entity or an educational institution are ₹1,600 to file and ₹4,000 to request examination; other applicants pay ₹8,000 and ₹20,000. Extra sheets beyond 30 and claims beyond 10 carry small per-item fees, and expedited examination costs ₹8,000 for the reduced category.

Patent pending starts on the filing date. Publication comes at 18 months, examination only after the request is filed, and a grant commonly takes two to four years from filing under the ordinary route. Expedited examination in Form 18A, open to startups, small entities, women applicants and a few other categories, often brings a grant within 12 to 18 months.

An invention: a product or a process that is new, involves an inventive step and is capable of industrial application. Section 3 of the Patents Act lists what is not patentable, including discoveries, mere admixtures, methods of agriculture, methods of medical treatment, plants and animals, and under Section 3(k) a mathematical or business method, a computer programme per se and an algorithm. Section 3(d) separately excludes new forms of known substances that do not enhance efficacy.

Not as a programme in itself. Software that produces a technical effect or solves a technical problem, for example by controlling equipment, improving how a device operates or processing data in a way that is itself new and inventive, has been granted patents. The claims have to be written around the technical contribution. Our search and opinion stage answers this before you pay for drafting, and often the right answer is copyright for the code and a trademark for the name.

A description of the invention filed to secure a priority date while the invention is still being developed, without claims. It gives you patent pending and a date that counts against everyone who files later. The complete specification, with the claims, must be filed within 12 months or the application is treated as abandoned.

An application can be filed by the applicant personally or through a registered patent agent, and in practice every serious application is drafted and filed by an agent, because the claims decide what the patent is worth. The specification on our plans is drafted and filed by a registered patent agent on our panel under a Form 26 authority; your BizExpress expert runs the search, the strategy, the deadlines and the explanation.

A patent application is not examined until the applicant files Form 18 and pays the fee. For applications filed on or after 15 March 2024 the request must be made within 31 months of the priority date (48 months for earlier applications). An application with no request in time is deemed withdrawn. Examination can be sped up with Form 18A where the applicant qualifies.

The examiner's objections, on novelty, inventive step, Section 3 exclusions, clarity, unity and formalities, must be answered within six months of the report, extendable by three months on request. The reply usually amends the claims and argues the rest. If the examiner is not satisfied, a hearing is listed, and after it the application is granted or refused. Most grants in India go through at least one such round.

Twenty years from the filing date, provided renewal fees are paid every year from the third year. For an individual, startup or small entity the annual fee starts at ₹800 and rises in slabs to ₹8,000 by year 20; other applicants pay five times that. Paying four or more years in advance earns a 10 percent discount. A lapsed patent can be restored within 18 months on showing the lapse was unintentional.

An Indian application gives you 12 months to file abroad claiming its priority date, either country by country under the Paris Convention or through a single PCT application that keeps your options open in more than 150 countries for 30 or 31 months. An Indian resident must file in India first or obtain a foreign filing licence before filing abroad. We plan the foreign route at the provisional stage so the 12-month date is never a surprise.

The inventor is the first owner unless the right has passed to someone else, usually the employer under an employment contract or an assignment. A company applies as the applicant and names the inventors, and must file proof of its right to apply. We check the contracts before filing, because a missing assignment is the commonest reason a startup's patent fails diligence years later.