In the month of May 2016, several amendments were made to the Indian Patent Rules. The amendment introduced the option to expedited examination of patent applications, provided certain conditions are met. The amendment had also made it certain that the number of requests for expedited examination that will be allowed will be limited. Newly introduced rule, 24(C)(13), gave the Controller General of Patents, Designs and Trade Marks (CGPDTM) the authority to restrict the number of requests for expedited examination to be received every year.

Rule 24(C)(13):

Notwithstanding anything contained this rule, the Controller may limit the number of requests for expedited examination to be received during the year by way of a notice to be published in the official journal.

The CGPDTM, on June 14, 2016, has published a notification limiting the number of requests for expedited examination that will be accepted till December 31, 2016. As per the notification, the number of requests for expedited examination is restricted to 1000.

The Patents (Amendments) Rules, 2016 have come into force w.e.f. 16, May, 2016. In this regard the stakeholders and general public are hereby informed that in terms of provisions of sub-rule (13) of Rule 24C relating to expedited examination of applications, the number of requests for expedited examination to be received by the Patent Office on or before 31" December, 2016 has been limited to 1000 requests.   

At present, the patent office website does not provide a dynamic utility to display the number of requests that are available in real time. Hence, at the time of filing requests using the online portal of the patent office, one will be able to know whether the number has been exhausted or not. Alternatively, we believe that the CGPDTM will again have a notification published once the number is exhausted.

At the time of writing this piece, request for expedited examination could still be filed. However, considering that 1000 is a small number relative to the number of patent applications filed in India, we anticipate the requests to be exhausted within the next couple of month, if not before that.

Please feel free check our patent services page to find out if we can cater to your patent requirements. You can also contact us to explore the option of working together. 

Best regards – Team InvnTree   

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