Patent Application Filing Procedure-Process in India

Filing a patent application in the Indian Patent Office is the first step towards securing a patent to
your invention in India. To file a patent application, a set of forms has to be submitted to the
patent office.

The forms can be submitted online (http://ipindiaonline.gov.in/epatentfiling/goForLogin/doLogin) if

you have a class 3 digital certificate. Alternatively, you can send true copies (hard copies) to the
patent office. The patent office charges 10% additional fee if applications are filed offline.
Please note that, the most important factor in filing a patent application is preparing a patent
specification. Drafting a patent specification is a highly skilled job, which can be only preformed
by persons who have both techinical as well as patent law expertise. If a person or company is
serious about protecting their intellectual property, it is highly recommeded to use the services of
professional patent practitioners. To know more about this, you can read our article on this:

 Should an inventor take professional help to draft and file patent applications?
 Why should patent specifications be drafted by patent professionals?
Further, we have provided this article for knowledge purposes only. It is recommened to avail
services of professionals to file patent applications, as mistakes will prove costly. Thorough
understanding of the Indian Patent Act is essential for filing patent applications. Patent agents
have understanding of the Indian Patent Act and are the only persons (other than the applicant
themselves) authorized by the Patent office to file patent applications on behalf of the applicant.
InvnTree employs patent agents.

Indian patent offices are located at Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai and Chennai. The patent application
has to be filed in the appropriate office based on your/your company’s location. The table below
provides the addresses of the patent offices in India and their respective territorial jurisdiction.

Office Address Territorial Jurisdiction

Intellectual Property Office,
Boudhik Sampada Bhawan,
Near Antop Hill Post The States of
Office, S.M.Road,Antop Hill, Maharashtra, Gujarat,
MumbaiI – 400 037. MadhyaPradesh, Goa
Phone: 24137701, and Chhattisgarh and
24141026, 24150381, the Union Territories of
24148165, 24171457 FAX : Daman and Diu &
24130387 EMAIL: mumbai- Dadra and Nagar
Mumbai patent@nic.in Haveli
Intellectual Property Office,
Intellectual Property Office
Building, G.S.T. Road, The States of Andhra
Guindy, Chennai-600032, Pradesh, Karnataka,
Phone: 044-22502081-84 Kerala, Tamil Nadu and
FAX: 044-22502066, the Union Territories of
Email: chennai- Pondicherry and
Chennai patent@nic.in Lakshadweep
Intellectual Property Office, The States of Haryana,
Intellectual Property Office Himachal Pradesh,
New Building, Plot No. 32, Sector Jammu and Kashmir,
Delhi 14, Dwarka, New Delhi- Punjab, Rajasthan,
 Office Address Territorial Jurisdiction
110075, Uttar Pradesh,
Phone : 011-28034304, Uttaranchal, Delhi and
28034305 28034306 the Union Territory of
FAX:011- 28034301,02 Chandigarh.
Email: delhi-patent@nic.in
Intellectual Property Office,
Intellectual Property Office
Building, CP-2 Sector V,
Salt Lake City, Kolkata-
700091,
Phone : 23671945, 1946,
1987,
FAX-033-2367-1988,
Email:- kolkata-
Kolkata patent@nic.in The rest of India.

Once you have identified the patent office in which you have to file your patent application, it is
now time to get an overview of the forms that have to be submitted.

To file a patent application, you will have to submit form 1, form 2, form 3 and form 5.
Subsequent to filing these forms with the appropriate fees, you will receive a patent application
number from the patent office. You can choose to file form 9 (optional) and form 18 along with
fiing a complete application or after filing a complete application. You can download the Indian
patent application filing forms.

In the table below, the list of forms that have to be submitted and their respective fees is
provided. Please note that, the fee mentioned is for E-filing only. The patent office charges an
additional fee of 10% over the fee for applications filed offline.

Patent office Fee (INR) 1$ = ~ 60 INR

E-Filing only
Applicant –

other than natural

person
Applicant- Others
Natural except
person/ Small small
Startup Entity entity
Form Title Comment
Application for Grant
1 of Patent 1600 4000 8000 Mandatory

Provisional/Complete No
2 Specification No fee* fee* No fee* Mandatory
 Statement and
Undertaking Under No
3 Section 8 No fee fee No fee Mandatory

Declaration as to No
5 Inventorship No fee fee No fee Mandatory

Request for
9 Publication 2500 6250 12500 Optional

Request for
Examination of
18 Application for Patent 4000 10000 20000 Mandatory

* – A fee of 160/400/800/sheet, based on the type of applicant, is applicable for each sheet
exceeding 30 sheets in a patent specification. Further, a fee of INR 320/800/1600/Claim, based
on the type of applicant, is applicable for each claim exceeding 10 claims in the patent
specification.
Before reading further, I recommend reading our article “How much does it cost to get a patent in
India?” I think it will help you in taking some decisions during the filing process.

An overview of each of the forms is provided below.

Form 1 – Application for Grant of Patent

As the name suggests, this form is an application for grant of patent in India. In this form, you will
have to furnish information, such as, name and address of the inventor(s), name and address of
the applicant(s), information corresponding to prior patent applications relating to the current
invention, which you or any authorized entity has filed, and some declarations, among other
information.

(Added after receiving comments from Mr. Naren) Please note that a local communication
address (address in India) has to be provided. This point is of importance to foreign (Non-Indian)
applicants.

Form 2 – Provisional/Complete Specification

Form 2 is used to furnish your patent specification. The patent specification can be provisional or
a complete patent specification depending of the type of patent application (provisional or
complete) you are filing. You might find our article on “What are the different patent filing
options?” useful.
If you are filing a provisional patent application, then use the following preamble in the first page
of Form 2:

The following specification describes the invention

On the other hand, if you are filing a complete patent application, then use the following
preamble in the first page of Form 2:
The following specification particularly describes the invention and the manner in which it is to be
performed

Note that, if you are filing offline, 2 copies of the patent specification has to be sent to the patent
office. Additionally, count the number of sheets and claims (extra fee for more than 30 sheets
and more than 10 claims) and calculate the appropriate fee. While counting the sheets, even the
drawing sheets will have to be taken into account.
Form 3 – Statement and Undertaking Under Section 8

Form 3 is used to furnish information/actions relating to patent applications filed in other

countries for the current invention. Additionally, any information relating to the rights
corresponding to the present patent application has to be furnished. Further, you would be using
form 3 to undertake that you will be keeping the patent office informed in writing the details
regarding corresponding applications for patents filed outside India. You can read more about
this in ourarticle.
Form 5 – Declaration as to Inventorship

This application is used to declare the inventors of the subject matter sought to be protected
using the current patent application.

Form 9 – Request for Publication

If this form is not filed, then the patent specification will be published by the patent office after 18
months from the priority date (filing of the first patent application for the current subject matter).
On the other hand, by filing this form, you can generally have your patent specification published
within 1 month from filing this form. Note that the patent rights start from the date of publication of
the patent application (enforceable after grant of patent).

Form 18 – Request for Examination of Application for Patent

This form can be filed within 48 months from the priority date. The patent office will not consider
your patent application for examination unless this form is filed. Hence, if you wish to expedite
the patenting process, filing of form 9 and 18 at an early stage is advised. A startup can also
request for expedited examination of their patent application. The fee for this is INR 8000. At
present, the patent office has limited this request to about 1000 request in a year.
As a final note, I would advise you to go through our article only for the purpose of gaining
knowledge of the patenting process, not as a guide to file patents on your own, since this will
lead to adverse affects at a later stage.