Form 18: request for examination in India

Form 18 deadline

Section 11B(1) says no application is examined unless the applicant or any other interested person requests it within the prescribed period. Rule 24B(1) sets that period. The Patents (Amendment) Rules, 2024 cut it from 48 to 31 months for applications filed from 15 March 2024, the date they came into force.

You can file Form 18 at any point before the deadline, including with the application. Examination itself starts only after publication: applications are referred to an examiner in the order the requests were filed (rule 24B(2)(i)). A request for early publication on Form 9 removes the 18-month wait for publication.

What happens if you miss the deadline

If no request for examination is filed within the period, the application is treated as withdrawn by the applicant (section 11B(4)). Rule 138, as substituted in 2024, lets the Controller extend a time limit in the rules or condone a delay by up to 6 months on a Form 4 request, at ₹10,000 / ₹50,000 a month. Whether to allow it is the Controller's decision, so do not plan on it. Check the deadline on the application status page for any application you own.

Form 18 and Form 18A fees

Official e-filing fees from Table I of the First Schedule, as substituted in 2024. The lower rate applies when every applicant is a natural person, startup, small entity or educational institution.

Every other fee, from filing to renewal, is on the patent fees in India page.

Expedited examination on Form 18A

Rule 24C lets eligible applicants file Form 18A instead of Form 18, within the same deadline and only online. Under rule 24C(1) the request can be made on any of these grounds:

• India was the International Searching Authority or International Preliminary Examining Authority for the corresponding PCT application;
• the applicant is a startup;
• the applicant is a small entity;
• all applicants are natural persons and at least one of them is female;
• the applicant is a government department, a government company, or an institution set up by statute and owned or controlled by the government;
• the applicant is an institution wholly or substantially financed by the government;
• the application is in a sector notified by the Central Government;
• the applicant is eligible under an agreement between the Indian Patent Office and a foreign patent office;

A few conditions apply:

• Unless the application is already published or a Form 9 request is on file, Form 18A must be filed with a request for early publication (rule 24C(3)).
• A Form 18 already on file can be converted to expedited examination (rule 24C(2)).
• If the request does not meet the rule, it is processed as an ordinary Form 18 request from the same date (rule 24C(4)).
• The Controller can cap the number of expedited requests accepted in a year by notice in the Journal (rule 24C(13)).
• The FER reply period is the same 6 months plus a 3-month extension, but the extension fee is higher (rule 24C(10) and (11)).

PCT national phase: the express request

The Patent Office does not start processing a PCT national phase application before 31 months from the priority date (rule 20(2) and (4)(i)). If you enter India earlier and want processing to start at once, file an express request on Form 18 under rule 20(4)(ii), at the higher fee in entry 28(ii). For international applications filed on or after 15 March 2024, the Form 18 deadline is also 31 months from priority, so an application entering India at 31 months needs its request for examination filed at entry.

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