Filing a patent isn’t a cakewalk, it requires you to go through several steps and possibly a few tests.
Therefore, in order to keep pace with the standard patent time at a world level, the Indian government amended the patent rules in 2016 and introduced the provision of expedited examination. Let’s now understand the procedure of expedited patent examination.
Expedited patent examination
In simple words, the expedited examination is getting your patent registered a bit sooner. Or you can say, it is a fast track patent service. The application for expedited examination is different from the express request for examination filed for the PCT National Phase. The request for expedited examination is allotted as a queue as opposed to an ordinary examination queue.
Pre-requisite required for the expedited examination?
According to the Indian patent rules, 2003, the expedited patent application must satisfy at least one criteria from the criteria stated below:-
- The applicant is a startup and was a startup while filing for the patent.
- The applicant is a small entity as defined in rule 2(fa) of the Patent Rules, 2003; or
- At least one of the applicant is a natural female person;
- The applicant is a government undertaking by section 2(1) (h) of the Patent Act, 1970. In case of an Indian applicant, or is a similar entity in case of a foreign applicant; or
- The applicant is eligible under an arrangement for processing an international application according to an agreement between the Indian patent office with another participating patent office.
Cost of expedited patent examination
Expedited patent examination costs are slightly more than the normal examination. Please note that your expedited examination request will be considered only if the patent application is published. A table with the fee structure is given below for better understanding:
Taking an example of Individual/start-up, the official fee for applying for the expedited examination is ₹8000. Since your application should be published to undergo expedited examination, it is always suggested to apply for request for early publication while applying for the expedited examination.
For Individual/start-up, the official fee for applying for the early publication is ₹2500. This brings the total cost to ₹10,500.
It is evident from the fee table that for Individual/start-up the expedited examination costs ₹4000 more than the ordinary examination. Now, it’s on the applicant to decide whether he/she wants to pay ₹4000 extra to get a decision on the patent within a short time period or wants to wait for years to get the decision.
(This price list is for individual startups, but the amount is certainly more for the bigger entities, for that you please refer to the fee-table above)
Understanding the Roadmap of Expedited Patent Examination
By now, you’re crystal clear that the expedited examination procedure is faster than the ordinary one. So, now let’s understand the roadmap of this fast track patent feature.
First, the application is assigned to the examiner, which takes one to two months.
Second, the examiner submits the examination report to the controller, which is a month-long process.
In the third step, the controller puts in order of the first statement of objections (FSO) or First examination report (FER), it takes 15 days.
Consequently, the controller sends the FSO/FER to the applicant.
Within 6 months from the date of issue the FSO/FER, the applicant must send one or more replies to the controller corresponding to the FSO, three months from the last answer, the controller makes a final decision whether to grant or reject a patent.
So that’s all about the concept of expedited examination briefly and the procedures involved in it. In case you want to apply for expedited review or upgrade from the ordinary one, then consult Patent Panacea now! Our recent success are with Imito Technologies Pvt.Ltd. and Atuvik Technologies Pvt. Ltd. which got their patent granted in a record time of 6-7 months.