A patent in India lasts twenty years from the filing date, provided the renewal fees are paid. Getting one takes years rather than months, and most of that is waiting; what decides the outcome is a handful of deadlines that cannot be extended, a few forms that exist nowhere else, and whether the invention clears an exclusion list that is longer than most countries’.
This page is the map. Each section links to a guide with the detail.
Quick reference
| Stage | The one thing to know | Guide |
|---|---|---|
| Is it patentable? | New, inventive, industrially useful — and not on the exclusion list | What can be patented |
| Search first | The Office does not search for you before filing | Patent search |
| Filing | Provisional buys twelve months; the twelve months cannot be extended | Provisional or complete |
| Filing abroad | Residents need an Indian filing six weeks earlier, or permission | Foreign filing licence |
| Examination | Nobody examines until you ask — 31 months from priority | Request for examination |
| The report | Six months to answer, or the application is abandoned | Patent examination |
| After grant | Renewals from year three; working statements every three years | Renewals · Form 27 |
| Cost | Individuals, startups and small entities pay a fifth of the standard fees | Patent fees |
What can be patented
An invention must be new anywhere in the world, involve an inventive step — a technical advance or economic significance that would not be obvious to someone skilled in the field — and be capable of industrial application.
It must also fall outside the list of things the Act refuses to treat as inventions. That list is where Indian practice differs most from elsewhere. It excludes computer programmes as such and business methods; methods of medical treatment; plants and animals; and — the provision that governs pharmaceutical patenting — new forms of known substances that are not significantly more effective than the original. The nuclear-energy bar that stood for fifty years was lifted in December 2025, with sensitive activities still reserved.
India has no general grace period. Publish before filing and the novelty is gone.
Filing
An application can start with a provisional specification, which secures a date and gives twelve months to file the complete one, or with a complete specification from the outset. The twelve months has no extension of any kind.
There are five routes in: an ordinary Indian filing; a convention application claiming priority from a foreign filing within twelve months; entry from a PCT application within thirty-one months of priority; a divisional carved out of a pending application; and a patent of addition for an improvement to something already protected.
If the applicant or any inventor is resident in India, filing abroad first needs either an Indian application six weeks earlier or written permission from the Patent Office. Skipping that step can abandon the Indian application and is a criminal offence — one of the few in the Act that was not decriminalised in 2024.
Examination
Publication happens on its own, eighteen months after priority. Examination does not. A request for examination must be filed within thirty-one months of the earliest priority date for applications filed on or after 15 March 2024 — forty-eight months for older ones — or the application is treated as withdrawn. Startups, small entities, female applicants, educational institutions and a few others can request the expedited track and expect a report within weeks rather than years.
The examiner’s report sets out objections. The applicant has six months to put the application in order, extendable by three; if it is not in order in time, the application is abandoned. Where objections survive the reply there is a hearing, and then a decision — grant, or a refusal that can be appealed to the High Court.
The forms peculiar to India
Three filings catch out applicants used to other systems.
Form 3 discloses every application for the same invention filed abroad — at filing, again within three months of the examination report, and whenever the Controller asks. Missing or false disclosure is a ground for opposition and revocation on its own.
Form 27, after grant, tells the Office whether the invention is being worked in India. Since 2024 it is filed once every three financial years, by 30 September, by the patentee and every licensee separately.
Where the invention uses biological material from India, the specification must say where it came from, and the National Biodiversity Authority has to be involved before grant — by prior approval for foreign applicants, by registration for Indian ones.
Challenging a patent
Anyone can oppose a published application before grant. For twelve months after grant a person with a real interest in the field can oppose it at the Patent Office. For the rest of its life it can be revoked by the High Court, on petition or by counter-claim when the patentee sues. Three years after grant, a compulsory licence can be sought if the invention is not being worked or is unaffordable — a power used successfully once in the Act’s history.
Keeping it alive
Renewal fees run from the third year, annually, each due before the year begins, with a six-month grace on payment of an extension fee. A patent that lapses can be restored within eighteen months if the failure was unintentional — but anyone who started using the invention in the gap is protected.
Assignments and licences must be in writing and recorded at the Patent Office; an unrecorded deed cannot be used to prove title in court.
What it costs
Official fees run at two rates. Individuals, startups, small entities and educational institutions pay roughly a fifth of what everyone else does — ₹1,600 rather than ₹8,000 to file, ₹4,000 rather than ₹20,000 for examination, and ₹76,800 rather than ₹3,84,000 in renewals over a full term. The reduced rate is claimed on a declaration with evidence.
Frequently asked questions
How long does a patent last in India? Twenty years from the filing date, provided the annual renewal fees are paid from the third year onward. A patent of addition expires with the main patent it improves.
How long does it take to get a patent in India? There is no reliable figure; the examination queue varies by field. Filing the request for examination early and using the expedited track where the applicant qualifies are the only levers that move the date. Grant within a year is realistic on the expedited track; on the ordinary track it is not.
What is the most common way to lose a patent application in India? Missing a deadline that cannot be extended — the twelve months from provisional to complete, the thirty-one months to request examination, or the six months to answer the examination report. Each ends the application with no route back at the Patent Office.
Do foreign applicants need anything special to file in India? An Indian address for service through a registered patent agent, a statement of their foreign applications on Form 3, and — after grant — statements of working every three years. Where the invention uses Indian biological material, the National Biodiversity Authority’s prior approval before grant.
Can I file in India and abroad at the same time? If you are resident in India, only after an Indian filing at least six weeks earlier with no secrecy direction, or with written permission from the Patent Office. Non-residents are not restricted by this rule.
Is a patent granted in another country valid in India? No. Patents are territorial. Protection in India requires an Indian patent, obtained by direct filing, a convention application within twelve months of the foreign filing, or PCT national phase entry within thirty-one months of priority.
Useful official resources
- IP India — patents — the Act, the Rules, forms, fees and the Manual of Patent Office Practice
- InPASS — patent search — search Indian applications and patents and check their status
- WIPO Patentscope — international applications
See our related notes on every stage from filing to grant and the full fee schedule.
Filing in India for the first time, or entering the national phase with a deadline in view? Talk to us. The foreign filing licence and the working statement are the two obligations foreign applicants most often miss.