- Expedited examination shall be filed using Form 18A within the time only if,
- India has been indicated as the Competent International Searching Authority or elected as International Preliminary Examining Authority for the application.
- the applicant is a startup.
- An ordinary request for examination filed earlier shall be converted into an expedited examination request upon payment of the relevant fees and submitting the documents.
- If a request for expedited examination is filed, either the application should have already been published or a request for publication is filed accompanying or before the expedited examination request is made.
- If the requirements are not fulfilled, an expedited examination request shall be considered to be an ordinary request and processed accordingly on the same date of filing upon an intimation to the applicant.
- After a request for expedited examination is filed by a startup along with application, specification and other documents required; the controller shall refer the request and the documents so submitted to the examiner in the order of filing such requests. (This is applicable even though at the time of examination a startup has ceased to be a startup.)
- Examiner shall prepare and respond to such reports within one month and not exceeding two months from the date of reference of such applications.
- Controller shall dispose the report to the applicant or the agent within one month from the date of receiving such report(FER) from the examiner.
- The first statement of objections / First Examination Report (FER) along with any documents shall be issued by the Controller to the applicant or his authorized agent within 15 days from the date of receipt of such a report from the examiner.
- Reply to such FERs from the applicants shall be processed in the order as if it were received by the examiner for such applications under expedited examination request.
- Application for grant with reply to objections shall be made within 6 months from the date of issue of the First Statement of Objections from the Controller.
- If extension of time is needed for making a reply to the Controller, Form 4 shall be filed before the expiry period along with the prescribed fees, which, if the Controller allows shall have an extension of 4 months.
- Controller shall dispose the applications within a period of 3 months after receiving the last reply from the applicant or agent upon the FER issued. This time limit does not apply if any pre-grant opposition is made.
- Number of requests made by an applicant in a year for expedited examination shall be limited by the Controller by the way of a notice publication.