A granted patent stays in force only for as long as its renewal fees are paid. Miss one, and after a short grace period the patent ceases — the Register will show it as lapsed, and anyone is free to use the invention.
That is recoverable, within limits. This guide explains how the renewals work, what the window for putting things right looks like, and what you do not get back even when you succeed.
Quick reference
| Renewal fees start | From the third year, and every year after |
| Due | Before the end of the previous year |
| Grace | Six months, on request and payment of an extension fee |
| After that | The patent ceases |
| Restoration window | Eighteen months from the date it ceased — not extendable |
| Form | Form 15, with a full statement of what went wrong |
| Test | The failure was unintentional, and there was no undue delay |
| What stays lost | No action for infringement during the gap; people who started using the invention are protected |
How renewals work
Renewal fees are payable from the third year of the patent and then annually for the rest of its twenty-year life. Each year’s fee must be paid before that year begins — the third year’s fee before the end of the second year, and so on, counted from the filing date.
You can pay several years at once. Since March 2024, paying at least four years in advance electronically earns a ten per cent discount on the fees, which is worth taking on any patent you intend to keep.
Patents granted late. Where a patent is granted more than two years after filing — which is most of them — the fees for the years already passed fall due together, within three months of the grant being recorded in the Register. That can be extended, but the accumulated bill is a common source of surprise.
The grace period. If a fee is missed, you have six months to pay it, provided you ask for the extension and pay the extension fee. The request is on Form 4. This is the safety net most missed renewals are caught by.
After the grace period, the patent ceases. The Register records it as ceased, the Office publishes the fact, and from that point the invention is public property unless the patent is restored.
Restoration: the 18-month window
An application to restore a lapsed patent must be made within eighteen months of the date on which it ceased to have effect.
That period is in the Act itself, not the Rules, which matters for one reason: the Controller’s general power to extend deadlines applies to time limits the Rules set, and cannot reach this one. Eighteen months means eighteen months. An application on day 548 is out of time, and no explanation rescues it.
The application is made on Form 15, with the fee, by the patentee or their legal representative.
What the application must show
The form is the easy part. What decides the application is the statement that goes with it, which must set out fully the circumstances that led to the fee not being paid. The Controller can ask for further evidence, and usually does.
Two things have to be established:
The failure to pay was unintentional. This is the heart of it. A renewal missed because a reminder system failed, an agent’s instruction went astray, a company changed hands and the portfolio was overlooked, or a payment was made to the wrong patent — these are the cases that succeed. A conscious decision to let the patent go, followed by a change of heart when a competitor appeared, is not unintentional and will not be restored.
There was no undue delay in applying. The eighteen months is a maximum, not a target. An applicant who discovered the lapse in month three and applied in month seventeen will be asked what took so long, and will need an answer.
The statement should be candid. Controllers have seen every version of “we do not know what happened”, and an honest account of a specific failure carries far more weight than a vague one.
Publication and opposition
If the Controller is satisfied on the face of the application that the failure was unintentional and the application timely, it is published. That opens a window of two months in which any person interested — typically a competitor who has been using the invention since it lapsed — can oppose the restoration, on Form 14.
The grounds of opposition track the two tests: that the failure was not in fact unintentional, or that there was undue delay. If an opposition is filed, both sides are heard before the Controller decides.
Where there is no opposition, or the opposition fails, the Controller orders restoration.
What it costs
On an order in the patentee’s favour, the patentee must pay, within one month of the order, all the unpaid renewal fees for the period of the lapse, together with an additional fee prescribed for restoration. Pay late and the order does not take effect.
So the real cost of a lapse is the missed fees, the restoration fee, the professional cost of preparing a statement good enough to succeed, and the months of uncertainty in between. All of it is avoidable by a diary entry.
What you do not get back
Restoration puts the patent back on the Register. It does not undo the lapse.
You cannot sue for infringement in respect of the gap. Anything done between the date the patent ceased and the date the restoration application was published is beyond reach.
People who started during the gap are protected. The Act requires the restored patent to be subject to provisions protecting anyone who, between the lapse and the publication of the restoration application, began to work the invention or took definite steps — by contract or otherwise — to do so. The Controller can impose further conditions to the same end. In practice this means a competitor who moved into the space while the patent was down may be entitled to carry on, or to compensation, even after it is restored.
This is why the lapse of a commercially valuable patent is never quite recovered from, and why the diary matters more than the remedy.
Lapsed patent or abandoned application?
These are different problems with different fixes, and they are often confused.
A lapsed patent is a granted patent that ceased for non-payment of a renewal fee. The fix is the restoration procedure above, before the Controller, within eighteen months.
An abandoned application is one that never reached grant — usually because the reply to the examination report was not put in on time, or no request for examination was ever filed. There is no equivalent restoration procedure at the Patent Office. The only route is to persuade a court, and courts have done so where the applicant was let down by their advisers rather than by their own inattention. It is litigation, not a form.
Frequently asked questions
How long do I have to restore a lapsed patent in India? Eighteen months from the date the patent ceased to have effect. The period is fixed by the Act and cannot be extended by the Controller. Restoration is applied for on Form 15.
When do patent renewal fees become due in India? From the third year of the patent and annually thereafter, each year’s fee being payable before the end of the preceding year. A six-month extension is available on request with an extension fee. If the patent is granted more than two years after filing, the accumulated fees fall due within three months of the grant being recorded.
What does “unintentional” mean for restoration? That the patentee did not decide to let the patent lapse. A failed reminder, a lost instruction, an administrative mix-up or an agent’s error will usually qualify. A deliberate decision not to renew, later regretted, will not.
Can someone oppose the restoration of my patent? Yes. Once the application is published, a person interested has two months to oppose, typically on the ground that the failure to pay was not unintentional or that there was undue delay. Both sides are then heard.
If my patent is restored, can I sue people who used the invention while it was lapsed? No. Acts done between the lapse and the publication of the restoration application cannot be sued on, and people who began working the invention or took definite steps to do so in that period are protected, potentially even after restoration.
Is there a discount for paying renewal fees in advance? Yes. Since March 2024, paying at least four years’ renewal fees in advance through electronic filing earns a ten per cent reduction.
Useful official resources
- IP India — patents — forms, fees and the patent office journal
- InPASS — patent search — check whether a patent is in force
See our related notes on every stage from filing to grant and the statement of working every patentee must file.
Discovered a lapse, or facing an opposition to restoration? Talk to us. The eighteen months runs from the date the patent ceased, not from the day you noticed.