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Examination of application

(1)(i) A request for examination under section 11B shall be made in Form 18 within forty-eight months from the date of priority of the application or from the date of filing of the application, whichever is earlier;

                (ii) The period within which the request for examination under sub-section (3) of section 11B to be made shall be forty-eight months from the date of priority if applicable, or forty-eight months from the date of filing of the application;

                (iii) The request for examination under sub-section (4) of section 11B shall be made within forty-eight months from the date of priority or from the date of filing of the application, or within six months from the date of revocation of the secrecy direction, whichever is later;

                (iv) The request for examination of application as filed according to the 'Explanation' under sub-section (3) of section 16 shall be made within forty-eight months from the date of filing of the application or from the date of priority of the first mentioned application or within six months from the date of filing of the further application, whichever is later;

                (v) The period for making request for examination under section 11B of the applications filed before the 1st day of January, 2005 shall be the period specified under the section 11B before the' commencement of the Patents (Amendment) Act, 2005 or the period specified under these rules, whichever expires later.

(2) (i) Where the request for examination has been filed under sub-rule (1) and application has been published under section 11A, the Controller shall refer the application, specification and other documents related thereto to the examiner and such reference shall be made in the order in which the request is filed:
        Provided that in case of a further application filed under section 16, the order of reference of such further application shall be the same as that of the first mentioned application:
        Provided further that in case the first mentioned application has already been referred for examination, the further application shall have to be accompanied by a request for examination, and such further application shall be published within one month and be referred to the examiner within one month from the date of such publication.

         (ii) The period within which the examiner shall make the report under sub-section (2) of section 12, shall ordinarily be one month but not exceeding three months from the date of reference of the application to him by the Controller;

        (iii) the period within which the Controller shall dispose off the report of the examiner shall ordinarily be one month from the date of the receipt of the such report by the Controller.

(3) A first statement of objections, along with any documents as may be required, shall be issued by the Controller to the applicant or his authorised agent within one month from the date of disposal of the report of examiner by the Controller: Provided that where the request for examination was filed by a person interested, only an intimation of such examination may be sent to such person interested.

(4) Reply to the first statement of objections and subsequent reply, if any, shall be processed in the order in which such reply is received.

(5) The time for putting an application in order for grant under section 21 shall be six months from the date on which the first statement of objections is issued to the applicant to comply with the requirements.

(6) The time for putting an application in order for grant under section 21 as prescribed under sub-rule (5) may be further extended for a period of three months on a request in Form 4 for extension of time along with prescribed fee, made to the Controller before expiry of the period specified under sub-rule (5).