Form 18 — Request for Examination of a Patent Application
Form 18 asks the Patent Office to examine an application, without which the application is never examined at all.
What Form 18 is for
Indian applications are not examined automatically. An application sits in the queue and nothing happens to it until someone asks. Section 11B says an application will not be examined unless a request is made in the prescribed manner within the prescribed period, and Rule 24B sets that period and the procedure. Form 18 is the request.
Filing it does two things. It puts the application into the examination queue, which eventually produces a first examination report setting out the objections the examiner has raised on patentability, sufficiency, unity, form and the other statutory requirements. It also starts the clock on the period for putting the application in order for grant, which Section 21 governs and which the Rules give effect to.
The consequence of not filing is unusually severe. If the request is not made within the prescribed period, the application is treated as withdrawn by the applicant. There is no examination report, no opportunity to argue, and no patent. This is the single most common way a good invention loses its Indian application, because unlike most defaults it produces no objection letter to warn the applicant. Because the Rules have been amended, download the current Form 18 and read Rule 24B as it now stands.
Who files it, and when
It is filed by the applicant, or by a patent agent the applicant has authorised. Any person interested may also make a request for examination in the circumstances the Act allows, which lets a party with an interest in the outcome force a pending application to be examined rather than leave it hanging. Where there are joint applicants, the request is made for the application as a whole.
The request must be made within 31 months from the date of priority or from the date of filing of the application, whichever is earlier, following the 2024 amendment to Rule 24B. That single number replaced the longer period that applied before, so anyone working from older material should check the current Rule. The same 31-month figure applies to national phase entry in India for an international application, which makes the two dates easy to confuse: entering the national phase is not the same act as requesting examination, and both have to be attended to. Where an application is published later than usual, or where a request is made by a person interested, the timing follows what the Rule provides.
How it is filed
- Calculate the 31-month date from the earlier of the priority date and the filing date, and diarise it as soon as the application is filed.
- Confirm the application has been published, or that early publication has been requested, since examination follows publication.
- Review the claims before requesting examination, and consider whether a voluntary amendment or a divisional filing is appropriate first.
- Complete the current Form 18 with the application particulars.
- Pay the fee prescribed in the First Schedule at the rate for the applicant category, and note that the category affects the fee.
- File it through the e-filing portal well before the deadline rather than on the final day.
- Diarise the reply period once the first examination report issues, since that period is short and is measured from the report.
What the form asks for
- The application number, the filing date and the priority date if any.
- The title of the invention as filed.
- The name of the applicant and the applicant category being claimed.
- Confirmation of the address for service in India.
- The signature of the applicant or the authorised agent.
- Payment of the fee prescribed in the First Schedule at the applicable rate.
Described in general terms. Form contents are prescribed in the Second Schedule and change — download the current version from the Patent Office rather than working from any summary, including this one.
Common mistakes with Form 18
- Assuming examination happens automatically. Nothing happens until the request is filed, and the office does not send a reminder.
- Confusing national phase entry with the request for examination. Both use a 31-month measure, and doing one does not do the other.
- Measuring 31 months from the wrong date. The period runs from the earlier of the priority date and the filing date.
- Requesting examination at a fee rate the applicant no longer qualifies for, for example after a startup has grown or the application has been assigned to a larger company.
- Filing on the last day and discovering a portal or payment problem with no time to fix it.
What happens if it goes wrong
Where no request reaches the office inside the prescribed period, the application is treated as withdrawn by the applicant. The filing date, the priority and any work done on the specification are all lost, and because the application will already have been published, the disclosure is public and cannot be recovered as a trade secret. Refiling is usually impossible, because the applicant's own published application becomes prior art. There is no examination report and no refusal to appeal against, which is why this deadline is treated as the most important one in the whole prosecution timetable.
A missed request at a Noida software products company
This is a simplified illustration. Aravalli Systems Pvt Ltd of Noida files an application in January covering a data compression method used in its industrial monitoring product. It claims priority from a provisional filed the previous year. The founder handles patents personally and diarises the publication date but not the examination request date. The application is published on schedule at 18 months, and the founder assumes an examination report will follow in due course. Nothing arrives, because nothing has been requested. Thirty-one months from the priority date pass. When the company later raises funding and its investor asks about the file, the agent checks the status and finds the application treated as withdrawn. The published specification is now public, so the compression method cannot be protected as a trade secret and a fresh filing would face the company's own publication. A single diary entry would have prevented the loss.
Simplified illustration only. Actual outcomes depend on the facts.
Questions about Form 18
What is the deadline for filing a request for examination in India?
Following the 2024 amendment to Rule 24B, the request must be made within 31 months from the date of priority or from the date of filing of the application, whichever is earlier. Before that amendment a longer period applied, so material published earlier may state a different figure. Because the consequence of missing the period is that the application is treated as withdrawn, the date should be diarised at the moment of filing and checked against the current text of the Rule rather than against memory.
What happens if I miss the request for examination deadline?
The application is treated as withdrawn by the applicant. That is the end of it: there is no examination, no report, no refusal and nothing to appeal. The loss is worse than it first appears, because the application will usually have been published already, so the invention is in the public domain and cannot be kept as a trade secret, and the applicant's own published specification stands as prior art against any fresh filing for the same invention. This is why the date is treated as non-negotiable.
Can someone else request examination of my application?
The Act allows a request for examination to be made by the applicant or by any other person interested, in the circumstances it provides. That gives a party affected by a pending application a way to force it into examination rather than leaving it unresolved for years. The practical effect for an applicant is that the timetable may move without the applicant initiating it, so a pending application should be monitored even where the applicant has not yet decided how hard to push it.
Should I file the request early or use the full period?
It depends on the objective. Filing early moves the application into the queue sooner, which suits an applicant who wants a granted patent for funding, licensing or enforcement. Using more of the period defers cost and leaves room to see how corresponding applications are examined abroad before committing to a claim set in India. What no applicant should do is leave the request to the last week, because a payment or portal problem at that point cannot be repaired. Applicants seeking real speed should also look at the expedited route.
Is your examination request date under control?
MYCrave Consultancy & Services helps applicants track Rule 24B deadlines and prepare claims before examination.