- Request for Examination under section 11B shall be made in Form 18 within 48 months from date of filing.
- If priority date is applicable in any manner through provisional filing or other means, then the 48 months shall be counted from the date of priority.
- If Secrecy Directions were imposed on a patent application; request for examination shall be made within 6 months after revocation of secrecy directions.
- If no claim was entered into a Complete specification and after the Controller’s instructions to resubmit the application with claim making amendments to the older specification, request for examination shall be filed within 6 months from the date of filing the new amended specification or within 48 months from filing whichever is later.
- For patent applications filed before 1/01/2005, the period for filing request for examination shall be the period specified before commencement of Patents Amendment Act, 2005 or the 48 months which ever is later.
- Controller shall refer those published applications by order to the examiner for examination; if an application is filed newly with claims as per section 16, the same shall also be referred to the examiner.
- If the application filed under section 16 is made after publication of the patent application, the amended application shall also be published and then forwarded to the examiner within one month for examination upon filing a request for examination by the applicant.
- The examiner shall report to the Controller with the first examination report within 3 months from the date of receipt of such report.
- The Controller shall dispose the examination report ordinarily within one month to the applicant or agent, after receiving it from the examiner.
- If the request for examination was filed by some other person, only an intimation shall be provided to him and not the detailed first examination report.
- Reply to FER and subsequent reports shall be made in same order as received.
- The applicant shall respond to the Controller within 6 months from receiving such order requesting an application to be granted.
- In case extension of time is needed in order to respond to the FER, Form 4 shall be filed and upon acceptance another 3 months shall be extended.