IP India guide
The Indian Patent Journal, explained
By Raj Sutariya, Co-founder, PatentAssist.ai
Updated
The Indian Patent Journal, officially the Official Journal of the Patent Office, is published every Friday by the Indian Patent Office. It is where patent applications become public and where grants are announced. Here is what each issue contains and how to find a specific application in it.
Two ways to use the journal
- Read an issue: download the weekly PDFs from IP India's journal portal.
- Skim the latest issue: our weekly journal summaries list who filed, in which fields and at which office, issue by issue.
- Find an application: search by number, title, or applicant across every published Indian application at once, with no PDFs to open.
What each weekly issue contains
- Early publication
- Applications published ahead of the 18-month date because the applicant filed Form 9. Listed separately for the Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, and Chennai offices.
- Publication after 18 months
- Applications published automatically under Section 11A once 18 months have passed from the priority date. Publication opens the window for pre-grant opposition.
- Weekly issued FER
- Applications for which a First Examination Report was issued that week. Useful for tracking competitors' applications as they move into examination.
- Grant of patents
- Patents granted that week, published under Section 43(2). The one-year window for post-grant opposition runs from this publication.
Publication opens the pre-grant opposition window and grant publication starts the one-year post-grant window; our guide to patent opposition in India covers both.
Issues also carry other notices on patent proceedings. To see where a single application stands, use the Indian patent application status guide.
More IP India guides
- Patent drawing requirements: USPTO, EPO and India
37 CFR 1.84, the EPO rules that replaced Rule 46 EPC, and Indian rule 15, compared side by side.
- Patent fees in India (2026)
Every official Indian patent fee from filing to renewal, with a fee calculator.
- How to check Indian patent application status
Where to check an Indian patent application's status, and what each status means.
- How to file a patent in India, step by step
Every step from prior art search to grant, with the forms and deadlines at each one.
- Types of patent applications in India
Ordinary, provisional, convention, PCT national phase, divisional and patent of addition, plus product vs process patents.
- Provisional vs complete specification in India
When to file a provisional, what it must contain, and the 12-month deadline for the complete.
- How to write patent claims: USPTO, EPO and India
Claim structure and worked examples, then the claim rules and fees at the USPTO, the EPO and the Indian Patent Office, side by side.
- Form 18: request for examination in India
The Form 18 deadline, fees, expedited examination on Form 18A, and what happens if you miss it.
- How to respond to a First Examination Report (FER)
The FER deadline, common objections, how to structure the reply, and the hearing.
- Indian patent timeline, from filing to expiry
Each stage of an Indian patent with its statutory deadline, from filing to the end of the 20-year term.
- Types of patent searches, and which one you need
Patentability, freedom-to-operate, invalidity and landscape searches compared by purpose, timing, scope and deliverable.
- Patentability search: how to check novelty before you file
What counts as prior art under 35 U.S.C. 102 and Art. 54 EPC, the grace period gap, search steps and how to read results.
- Freedom-to-operate search in the US and Europe
In-force claims only, legal status checks at the USPTO, EPO and UPC, FTO opinions after Halo, and design-arounds.
- Invalidity search: prior art to challenge a patent
IPR, PGR, EPO opposition and UPC revocation deadlines, prior art dates, standards documents and claim charts.
- Patent landscape analysis, step by step
Building a CPC and keyword dataset, cleaning families and names, the metrics that matter and the 18-month publication lag.
- Google Patents search guide
Search operators and fields, Boolean and proximity syntax, non-patent literature, and where Google Patents falls short of the official databases.
- The Cooperative Patent Classification (CPC), explained
How CPC symbols are built, CPC against IPC, the Y section, how to find the right class and how to search it in each database.
- Patent search Boolean operators and search strings
Boolean, proximity and truncation syntax compared across Patent Public Search, Espacenet, Google Patents and The Lens, with semantic search for contrast.
- The PCT application: timeline, fees and national phase
The international phase month by month, receiving Office and ISA fees in CHF, USD and EUR, national phase deadlines by office, and a deadline calculator.
- How much does a patent cost?
USPTO fees by entity size from filing to the last maintenance fee, what drives professional fees, EPO fees, and an estimator.
- How long does a patent last?
US utility and design terms, patent term adjustment and extension, terminal disclaimers, maintenance fee deadlines, Europe and India, with an expiry estimator.
- Can AI write a patent application?
What AI drafting does well and badly, the USPTO and EPO positions on AI tools, AI inventorship after 2025, and confidentiality.
- PCT national phase deadlines by country
30, 31 or more months: the national phase time limit at every office in WIPO's table, late-entry options and a deadline calculator.
- PCT search report, written opinion and Chapter II
How to read the international search report and written opinion, Article 19 amendments, informal comments, and when a Chapter II demand is worth filing.
- Pre-grant and post-grant opposition in India
Who can oppose, the grounds in Section 25, the deadlines and fees, Form 7A and Form 7, and how the Opposition Board and hearing work.
Indian Patent Journal: frequently asked questions
What is the Indian Patent Journal?
It is the Official Journal of the Patent Office, published by the Indian Patent Office every Friday under Section 145 of the Patents Act, 1970. It records published patent applications, grants, and other patent proceedings, and has been published only in electronic form since 2005.
Where can I download the Indian Patent Journal?
Every issue is available free as PDF files on IP India's journal portal (search.ipindia.gov.in/IPOJournal). Each weekly issue is split into several parts, one per section and office.
How do I search the Indian Patent Journal for a specific application?
The journal PDFs are not searchable across issues. Instead, search the application number, title, or applicant in PatentAssist.ai's free Indian patent search, which shows the publication date and the full text. In Advanced search you can filter by publication date or grant date to list everything published in a given week.
When is an Indian patent application published in the journal?
18 months from the priority date or filing date, whichever is earlier. If the applicant requests early publication on Form 9, it is normally published within about a month of the request.
Why does publication in the journal matter?
Once an application is published, its contents become prior art, the applicant gains provisional rights from the publication date, and anyone can file a pre-grant opposition until the patent is granted.
More on searching IP India data: Indian patent search.