Section 155 of the Patents Act, 1970
Reports of Controller to be placed before Parliament
Section 155 requires the Central Government to place an annual report on the working of the Patents Act before both Houses of Parliament.
Official legal text
The verbatim statutory text of this provision is reproduced from the official source and checked by our legal reviewer before it is published here. Until that check is complete for this page, read the exact wording directly from the official source linked below — it is the only version that governs.
Read this as a plain-language summary. If it and the official text, or a relevant Gazette notification, say different things, the official text and the notification are what count.
What this section says, in plain language
Section 155 is an accountability provision. It requires the Central Government to lay before each House of Parliament, once a year, a report on the execution of the Act by or under the Controller. In practice this appears as the annual report of the Office of the Controller General of Patents, Designs and Trade Marks, which is published and available to anyone.
The report is not a formality for the reader who knows how to use it. It carries the numbers that describe how the Indian patent system is actually behaving: how many applications were filed, by residents and non-residents, in which technology fields and at which of the four patent offices; how many were examined, granted, refused, withdrawn or abandoned; how long examination is taking; how many oppositions and compulsory licence applications were dealt with; how many patent agents are on the register; and how the office is resourced.
Those numbers have practical uses. A startup deciding whether to file in India and when to request examination can see the current pendency trend. A university technology transfer office can benchmark its filing volume against national figures for educational institutions. A company choosing between the ordinary and expedited examination routes can weigh the reported timelines. Policy submissions, whether from industry associations or from academics, are far more persuasive when they are built on the office's own published data.
The provision fits into a wider design of transparency in the Act. Section 145 requires publication of the official journal, Section 153 lets a person seek information about a specified patent or application, and Sections 67 and 72 make the register a public document open to inspection. Section 155 adds the aggregate view and puts it before Parliament, so the working of the office can be scrutinised by elected representatives and not only by the people who use it.
Because the report is annual, it is a lagging indicator. It tells you what happened in a completed year, not what is happening this month. For current status of a particular file you go to the office systems and, if needed, to a request under Section 153.
Why this section matters
Policymakers, industry bodies, researchers, patent professionals, and businesses planning an Indian filing strategy.
Annually, when the report is laid before Parliament and published, and whenever someone needs reliable national data on Indian patent activity.
A duty on the Central Government to report to Parliament each year on how the Act is being administered.
Strategy and policy arguments end up resting on anecdote and on out of date impressions of Patent Office pendency instead of the office's own published figures.
How it works in practice
Using published data to time a filing strategy
The technology transfer cell at a state technical university in Nagpur had to decide how to spend a limited patent budget across thirty disclosures from its engineering departments. Rather than filing everything and hoping, the cell pulled the last three published annual reports of the patent office and looked at filing and grant trends for educational institutions, the split of activity across the four patent offices, and reported examination timelines. Two things stood out. First, the reduced fee category for educational institutions made a broader filing programme affordable than the cell had assumed. Second, reported pendency meant that an ordinary request for examination on a disclosure with a two year commercialisation horizon would not produce an outcome in time for the industry partner's decision, so the expedited route was worth the extra cost for a small number of cases. The cell filed widely, expedited three, and reported the reasoning to its governing council using the national figures as support.
Simplified illustration only. Actual legal outcomes depend on the facts.
Key points to remember
- The Central Government must place an annual report on the administration of the Act before both Houses of Parliament.
- In practice this is the published annual report of the Controller General's office.
- It carries national statistics on filings, examinations, grants, refusals, oppositions, timelines and office resources.
- It is a useful benchmark for filing strategy, budgeting and policy submissions.
- It is an aggregate and lagging picture; individual file status comes from the office systems or a Section 153 request.
- It complements the journal, the register and the information right as part of the Act's transparency scheme.
Common mistakes and misunderstandings
- Treating the annual report as a source of information about a particular application. It reports aggregates, not individual files.
- Quoting figures from an old report as if they described current pendency, when timelines have shifted significantly in recent years.
- Overlooking the report entirely when preparing a policy submission or a board paper, and relying on impressions instead of the office's own data.
Connected provisions
Sections and rules are different kinds of law. A section is enacted by Parliament, while a rule is made by the Central Government using powers the Act grants. Keeping them apart shows which text you are reading and which of the two is more likely to have been revised recently.
Forms, deadlines and fees
The official fee for anything described on this page is set out in the First Schedule to the Patents Rules. It is not the same for every applicant, and it is not the same for online and physical filing, which is why no amount is stated here. How Indian patent fees work.
Related judgments
This part of the page is reserved for summaries of decided cases. They are added one at a time, after review by a person qualified to confirm that the summary matches the judgment. Nothing has been cleared for this provision so far, so there is nothing to show. How case notes are prepared.
Questions people ask about Section 155
What is the annual report of the Indian Patent Office?
It is the report on the working of the Patents Act that the Central Government is required by Section 155 to lay before both Houses of Parliament once a year, published by the Office of the Controller General of Patents, Designs and Trade Marks. It contains national statistics on applications filed, examined, granted, refused, withdrawn and abandoned, activity at each of the four patent offices, technology-wise breakdowns, opposition and compulsory licence activity, and information about staffing and infrastructure.
How can a startup use the annual report?
Use it to make budgeting and timing decisions with evidence rather than guesswork. The report shows filing volumes, grant rates and reported examination timelines, which help you judge whether to request ordinary or expedited examination, how long a pending application may take to reach a first examination report, and how active your technology field is in India. It also shows the scale of activity by individuals, startups and educational institutions, which is useful context when you present a patent budget to a board or an investor.
Where do I get current status of my own application?
Not from the annual report. Use the Patent Office online systems for the status of a specific application, and where you need a formal answer about a named patent or application, make a request for prescribed information under Section 153 read with Rule 134. For documents to be used in court or in a transaction, obtain certified copies under Rule 133, which Section 147 makes admissible without further proof. The annual report is for the national picture, not for individual files.
Why does Parliament need a report on patents?
Because the patent system is a public grant of exclusive rights, and Parliament created the office that grants them. Laying an annual report before both Houses allows elected representatives to see how many patents are being granted, how long examination is taking, whether the office is adequately resourced, and how the working requirement and compulsory licence provisions are being used. It is part of the same transparency design as the official journal, the public register and the right to seek information about a specified patent.
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