Patent — Guides, Updates & Practical Insights

Manual of Patent Office Practice and Procedure (2019), Chapter 9: the request for examination - who may file it, the period the Manual states, and the 31-month period that applies after the 2024 amendment

The request is made by the applicant or another interested person, on Form 18 (or Form 18A for expedited examination), with the fee. The Manual states a period of forty-eight months from the priority or filing date, whichever is earlier; the Patents (Amendment) Rules, 2024 reduced it to 31 months...

Manual of Patent Office Practice and Procedure (2019), Chapter 9: expedited examination - who qualifies, the request, how the Office processes it and when it is converted to an ordinary request

A request for expedited examination is made on Form 18A, with the fee, by electronic transmission only, and only on one of the ten grounds the Manual lists: for example start-up, small entity, a woman applicant (all natural persons), Government bodies, or India as the searching authority. If it...

Manual of Patent Office Practice and Procedure (2019), Chapter 9: reference of the application to an examiner, the search for anticipation by prior publication and prior claim, and how novelty is assessed

Applications are taken up in the order requests were filed and sent to an examiner by technical group. The examiner searches the Indian patent database from 1912 and other patent and non-patent sources, and records the search strategy. An invention is novel if the prior art, meaning everything...

Manual of Patent Office Practice and Procedure (2019), Chapter 9: inventive step - the general principle and the steps the examiner follows to decide whether an invention is obvious

Inventive step is a feature that involves technical advance, economic significance or both, and makes the invention not obvious to a person skilled in the art. The examiner looks at the invention as a whole, may combine several documents only if the prior art leads the skilled person to do so, and...

Manual of Patent Office Practice and Procedure (2019), Chapter 9: industrial applicability, sufficiency of disclosure and unity of invention - what the examiner tests and how each objection is met

The specification must show a specific utility, not just say the invention is useful. The examiner checks eight points on sufficiency, from the title to the deposit of biological material. The claims must relate to a single inventive concept; independent claims in different categories may be...

Manual of Patent Office Practice and Procedure (2019), Chapter 9: section 3(a), (b), (c), (e) and (f) - frivolous inventions, public order and morality, discoveries, mere admixtures and mere arrangement of known devices

The Office asks whether the claim is a frivolous or impossible machine (3(a)), a use that is contrary to public order, morality or health (3(b)), a discovery rather than a practical application (3(c)), a mere admixture without synergy (3(e)) or a mere arrangement of independently working known...

7 min read04 Oct 2026

Manual of Patent Office Practice and Procedure (2019), Chapter 9: section 3(d) - new forms of known substances, new uses and known processes, and the showing of enhanced efficacy the examiner asks for

The Office does not treat as an invention a new form of a known substance unless it shows enhanced known efficacy, nor a new property or new use of a known substance, nor the use of a known process, machine or apparatus unless it yields a new product or uses at least one new reactant. Salts...

Manual of Patent Office Practice and Procedure (2019), Chapter 9: section 3(h), (i) and (j) - methods of agriculture, methods of treatment and diagnosis, and plants, animals and essentially biological processes

A method of agriculture or horticulture, a method of medical, surgical, curative, prophylactic, diagnostic or therapeutic treatment of humans or animals, and plants, animals, seeds, varieties and essentially biological processes are not inventions. Instruments and apparatus for surgery, therapy or...

Manual of Patent Office Practice and Procedure (2019), Chapter 9: section 3(l) to (p) - literary and artistic works, mental acts, presentation of information, circuit topography and traditional knowledge - and where section 3(k) now sits

The Office rejects claims whose substance is a creative work, a mental method or game, a way of presenting information, a circuit layout or traditional knowledge. For traditional knowledge the examiner searches the Traditional Knowledge Digital Library (TKDL) and other resources. Section 3(k): the...