Sri Lankan examination has two stages, and they carry different risks. The first can quietly change your filing date. The second gives you a month to answer.
Quick reference
| Stage one | Formal requirements — contents, representations, fee, priority |
| Defect | Three months to rectify |
| Effect of rectifying | The date of rectification becomes the date of receipt of the application |
| Stage two | Substantive grounds under sections 103 and 104 |
| Submissions against refusal | One month from the notification |
| Hearing | At the Director-General’s invitation after submissions |
| Outcome | Refusal, absolute acceptance, or acceptance with conditions, amendments, modifications or limitations |
| Reasons in writing | On request within three months of the refusal or conditional acceptance |
| Publication fee | Within two months of the notice, or registration is refused |
| Overall longstop | Registration not completed within twelve months through the applicant’s default — abandoned after notice |
Stage one: the formalities
The Director-General first examines whether the application meets the content requirements of section 106 and the fee requirement of section 109, and, where applicable, the priority and exhibition provisions.
Where the application does not comply, the Director-General must first notify the defect and give the applicant three months from receipt of the notification to rectify it.
Then comes the provision worth building your filing practice around. Section 110(3): the date on which the applicant rectifies the defect is deemed to be the date of receipt of the application.
A formal defect does not merely delay the file. It moves the date on which your rights are measured — and in a first-to-file system where section 102 grants registration to whoever first fulfils the conditions of a valid application, that is a substantive loss, not an administrative one.
The same logic sits in the Regulations on fees: the date of the application is the date of receipt, unless the fee arrives later, in which case the later date governs.
Priority is treated differently. Where the applicant fails to comply with the priority or exhibition provisions, the application is not refused — the Director-General simply makes no reference to the priority claimed. You keep the application and lose the earlier date.
Stage two: the substantive grounds
Once the formalities are satisfied, the Director-General examines the mark against section 103 (the objective grounds — distinctiveness, descriptiveness, shapes, morality, emblems and the rest) and section 104 (third-party rights — earlier marks, earlier use, well-known marks, the unauthorised agent’s filing).
Where the mark is inadmissible, the Director-General notifies the applicant stating in writing the grounds on which registration is refused.
The applicant then has one month from the date of that notification to make written submissions against the refusal.
One month is short. It runs from the notification rather than from receipt, and a foreign applicant who has to take instructions, gather evidence of use and settle a position can lose most of it on logistics. The Director-General may allow a reasonable extension of a prescribed period, but that is a discretion to ask for, not a right to rely on.
What the grounds actually are, and which of them are worth arguing, is covered in marks that cannot be registered. The short version: distinctiveness and descriptiveness objections have a statutory route through section 103(2), which expressly allows the Director-General to weigh use and distinctiveness in other countries. Functional shapes, offensive matter and emblems do not.
The hearing
On receipt of submissions the Director-General may inform the applicant that a hearing has been granted, with the date, time and place.
So the hearing is not automatic and is not demanded — it follows from having filed submissions worth hearing. The written submissions are therefore the main event, not a placeholder.
The decision
After such inquiry as is thought fit, the Director-General may:
- refuse the application;
- accept it absolutely; or
- accept it subject to conditions, amendments or modifications, or to limitations as to the mode or place of use or otherwise.
Conditional acceptance is the common middle outcome and it is worth reading closely, because the conditions define what you will actually own and they are published with the application.
Where there is a refusal or a conditional acceptance, the applicant may require the Director-General to state the grounds of the decision in writing, if requested within three months of the refusal or conditional acceptance. That written statement is what an argument or an appeal is built from, so the request should be made as a matter of course where the outcome is being contested.
The publication fee
An easy way to lose an application that has already succeeded.
Where the Director-General considers the mark admissible, the applicant is asked to pay the prescribed publication fee within the prescribed period — which the Regulations set at two months from the date of the notice.
Section 111(8) is blunt: where the publication fee is not paid within the prescribed period, the Director-General shall refuse registration of the mark.
The Director-General may alternatively require the applicant to publish the application by notice in writing, and where the applicant fails or neglects to do so within three months of the notice, the application may be refused.
An accepted application lost for a missed publication fee is an avoidable, total loss. It belongs on the same diary as the substantive deadlines.
After publication
Publication opens a three-month window for opposition on the section 103 or 104 grounds. Where no opposition is received in time, the Director-General shall register the mark. See trademark opposition in Sri Lanka.
The twelve-month longstop
Section 112 sits over the whole process. Where, by reason of default on the part of the applicant, registration is not completed within twelve months from the date the Director-General received the application, the Director-General gives written notice of non-completion and then treats the application as abandoned unless it is completed within the time specified — which the Regulations set at three months from the issue of the notice.
The qualifier matters: it is default on the applicant’s part, not office delay. But it means an application left to drift while a commercial decision is made elsewhere has a clock on it.
Frequently asked questions
How long do I have to respond to a Sri Lankan examination objection? One month from the date of the Director-General’s notification. The Director-General may allow a reasonable extension, but the default is a month.
Can a formal defect affect my filing date? Yes. The date on which a defect is rectified is deemed to be the date of receipt of the application, so a formality problem moves the date your rights are measured from.
What happens if I miss the priority document deadline? The application continues, but with no reference to the priority claimed.
Is a hearing automatic? No. The Director-General may grant one after written submissions have been made, so the submissions carry the argument.
What happens if I do not pay the publication fee? Registration is refused. The Regulations give two months from the notice, and the Act requires refusal if it is not paid in time.
Is there an overall time limit on an application? Yes. If registration is not completed within twelve months because of the applicant’s default, the application is treated as abandoned after a notice allowing three months to complete it.
Useful official resources
- National Intellectual Property Office of Sri Lanka
- Intellectual Property Act, No. 36 of 2003 — sections 103, 104, 110, 111, 112
- Intellectual Property Regulations No. 01 of 2006 — regulations 17 to 21
See our related notes on filing a trademark in Sri Lanka, marks that cannot be registered and application stages.
Facing a Sri Lankan objection with a month to answer it? Talk to us.