Rule 19D of the Patents Rules, 2003
Transmittal of the international search report and written opinion
Rule 19D requires the Indian searching authority to send the search report and written opinion to the applicant and the International Bureau.
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 rule requires, step by step
A report that stays in the examiner's drawer helps nobody. Rule 19D deals with delivery. Once the Indian office, acting as an International Searching Authority, has established the international search report or a declaration that no report will be made, it transmits one copy to the International Bureau and one copy to the applicant, on the same day. The written opinion prepared with the report travels the same way.
The two recipients use the documents differently. The International Bureau is the central record-keeper of the international system. It publishes the international application at eighteen months from the priority date and publishes the search report with it where the report is ready in time, so that the citations become public alongside the disclosure. The written opinion is not published at that moment. Under the Treaty machinery it is converted into an international preliminary report on patentability, and is made available to the public at a later point in the international phase, and to the offices of countries where the applicant seeks protection.
For the applicant, the day the transmittal arrives is the day several clocks start. The Treaty allows one round of amendment to the claims after the search report is transmitted, and the period for demanding international preliminary examination is measured from the same event. The report also gives a first genuine basis for the commercial decision that dominates the international phase: which countries, if any, justify the cost of translation, agents and filing fees.
Because so much turns on that date, keeping the address for communication accurate is not a formality. If the applicant has moved, changed agent, or lost access to an old email account, transmittal still happens and the periods still run. There is no separate reminder system. The safest practice is to diarise the expected window for the report as soon as the international application is filed, then diarise the follow-on periods on the day the transmittal is received.
Once the documents are with the designated offices, they inform but do not decide. When the same application enters the Indian national phase, the Controller carries out an independent examination and issues a First Examination Report under the Indian rules. A favourable international opinion may make that process smoother, and a hostile one gives the applicant advance warning of the objections most likely to appear.
Why this rule matters
Applicants in the international phase, their agents, and the national offices that later examine the application.
On the day the search report is established, which is usually well before the eighteen month international publication.
A duty on the searching authority to deliver the report and written opinion promptly to both the applicant and the International Bureau.
If the transmittal is not noticed because contact details are stale, the applicant loses the amendment and preliminary examination windows that run from it.
How it works in practice
The report that went to an old email address
A Kochi startup, Backwater Sensors Pvt Ltd, changed its patent agent nine months after filing its international application but did not update the address for correspondence on the international file. The searching authority duly transmitted the search report and written opinion to the applicant and to the International Bureau on the same day, exactly as required. The message reached the former agent's office, where the matter had already been closed and archived. Nobody at the startup read the report for five months, and by then the period for amending the claims after the search report had expired and the window for demanding international preliminary examination had closed. Nothing was fatal. The company entered the Indian national phase and amended during examination there. But it paid for national phase entries in two countries on the strength of claims that the written opinion had already described as lacking an inventive step, and it never got that money back.
Simplified illustration only. Actual legal outcomes depend on the facts.
Key points to remember
- The search report and written opinion are transmitted to the applicant and the International Bureau on the same day.
- The International Bureau publishes the search report with the international publication where it is ready in time.
- The written opinion is turned into an international preliminary report on patentability and made available later in the international phase.
- Several time periods, including the chance to amend the claims, run from the transmittal date.
- Keep the address for correspondence current, because transmittal is the only notification you get.
Common mistakes and misunderstandings
- Believing the written opinion is confidential forever. It becomes available to the public and to national offices at a later stage of the international phase.
- Failing to update contact details after changing agents, so the transmittal is received by someone who no longer handles the file.
- Assuming that designated offices are bound by the transmitted opinion. They examine the application independently under their own law.
Connected provisions
Rules and sections are cited differently and amended differently. On a rule page the connected sections are therefore kept in a separate list, so that a reader quoting this material can attribute each requirement to the correct instrument.
Forms, deadlines and fees
- The search report and written opinion are transmitted to the applicant and the International Bureau on the same day the report is established.
- The period for amending the claims after the search report, and the period for demanding international preliminary examination, both run from the transmittal of the report. Check the current Treaty Regulations for the exact periods.
Open the deadline calculator — and have every date confirmed against the current Rules before you rely on it.
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
Court decisions shape how this provision is applied, but a summary is useful only if it is right. Every case note on this site is read by a legal reviewer before it goes live, and none has been completed for this provision so far. This section will fill in as those reviews finish. How case notes are prepared.
Questions people ask about Rule 19D
Who receives the international search report?
Two recipients get it on the same day: the applicant, at the address on record, and the International Bureau in Geneva. The Bureau then publishes the search report along with the international application at eighteen months from the priority date, if the report is ready by then, and makes the documents available to the offices of the countries the applicant has designated. Nobody else is notified, so the applicant must watch for the transmittal and act on it.
Is the written opinion published with the search report?
Not at the same time. The search report is published with the international application at eighteen months. The written opinion is treated differently: under the Treaty machinery it becomes an international preliminary report on patentability and is made available at a later stage of the international phase, both to the public and to the offices where the applicant may seek protection. So the opinion is not permanently confidential, and its content will eventually be visible to competitors.
What should I do the week the search report arrives?
Read the citation categories against your independent claims and note which claims are actually hit. Decide, with your agent, whether to amend the claims within the period allowed after transmittal, whether to demand international preliminary examination, and which countries still justify national phase costs. Diarise the follow-on dates immediately, because they run from the transmittal rather than from when you happened to read the report. Doing this early is far cheaper than reworking claims separately in every country later.
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