Rule 19N of the Patents Rules, 2003
Conditions for and extent of refund
Explains when fees paid to the Indian office for international search or preliminary examination may be refunded, and to what extent.
Official legal text
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The authority is the enacted text, not this page. Where our wording and the official provision, or an applicable Gazette notification, do not match, the official material prevails.
What this rule requires, step by step
When an applicant uses the Indian Patent Office in its Patent Cooperation Treaty roles, several fees are paid up front. There is a transmittal fee for the office acting as receiving office, an international filing fee that is passed on to WIPO, a search fee where the Indian office acts as International Searching Authority, and a preliminary examination fee where it acts as International Preliminary Examining Authority. All of these are paid before the work is done.
Sometimes the work is never done, or is stopped part way. The application may be withdrawn, it may be treated as withdrawn because a formality was not met, or the authority may find that it cannot carry out the search or examination at all. Rule 19N deals with that situation. It sets the conditions under which money already paid can come back to the applicant, and how much of it comes back.
The refund is not open-ended. Two things control it: the stage at which the application stopped, and the fee involved. Broadly, the earlier the application falls away, the more of the fee can be returned, because less of the authority's work has been used. Once an examiner has actually carried out the search or examination, the fee for that work is normally gone.
The rule works alongside the fee provisions in the First Schedule, which fix the amounts, and alongside the general fee rule. Because the figures and proportions are revised from time to time, an applicant should always check the current Schedule and the fee page rather than rely on what a colleague paid in an earlier year.
A refund is claimed by writing to the appropriate office with the application details and the reason. It helps to state clearly the date of withdrawal and the fact that the relevant work had not begun, and to attach proof of the payment.
Why this rule matters
Applicants who filed a PCT application through the Indian Patent Office and later withdrew it or could not proceed.
After a fee has been paid to the Indian office in its PCT role but the corresponding work has not been fully carried out.
A limited right to recover part or all of certain PCT fees when specified conditions are satisfied.
Money that could legitimately have been recovered stays with the office, because refunds are not issued automatically without a request.
How it works in practice
A Coimbatore textile MSME recovers part of a fee
A Coimbatore textile MSME files a PCT application for a low-lint spinning attachment through the Indian Patent Office as receiving office, and pays the search fee so that the Indian office will act as the searching authority. Three weeks later the firm's technical head discovers that a distributor had put the same attachment on public sale months before the priority date. The invention is no longer new anywhere. Rather than pay for a search that can only confirm bad news, the firm withdraws the international application and writes to the appropriate office asking for a refund of the search fee, explaining that the search had not yet been carried out and attaching the payment receipt. Because the file shows no search work had begun, the office processes a refund under Rule 19N in the proportion the Rules allow. The firm redirects the money into a fresh application covering a different, later improvement that its own engineers developed and never disclosed.
Simplified illustration only. Actual legal outcomes depend on the facts.
Key points to remember
- Refunds apply to fees paid to the Indian office in its PCT roles, not to fees paid in the Indian national phase.
- How much comes back depends on the stage reached and on the particular fee.
- Once the search or examination work has actually been done, that fee is generally not refundable.
- The amounts and proportions sit in the First Schedule and change over time, so check the current fee position.
- Refunds follow a written request with the application details, the reason and proof of payment.
Common mistakes and misunderstandings
- Assuming withdrawal automatically triggers a refund cheque. A request has to be made and the conditions in the rule have to be met.
- Confusing this rule with domestic refunds, such as the partial return of examination fee when an Indian application is withdrawn before the first examination report.
- Expecting the international filing fee collected for WIPO to be dealt with in the same way as the search fee. Different fees follow different paths.
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
This site does not carry a fee table. The First Schedule to the Patents Rules is the source, the rates vary with the applicant's category and with the mode of filing, and a figure quoted second-hand goes out of date quietly. How Indian patent fees work.
Related judgments
Case summaries are published only after a qualified reviewer has checked the judgment, the citation and the way the holding is described. Nothing has cleared that review for this provision yet, so nothing is listed here. We would rather show no case note than one that misstates what a court decided. How case notes are prepared.
Questions people ask about Rule 19N
Can I get the whole fee back if I withdraw immediately?
Sometimes, but not always. The rule ties the extent of the refund to how far the authority had gone with the work. If nothing has been done on the file, a larger share can be returned. If an examiner has already started or completed the search or examination, the office has spent its resources and the fee for that stage is normally retained. The exact proportions are set out in the Rules and the First Schedule, which are revised periodically.
How do I actually apply for the refund?
Write to the appropriate office that received the payment, quoting the international application number, the date of filing, the fee paid, the date and proof of payment, and the event that entitles you to the refund, such as withdrawal before the search began. Keep the request short and factual. If a patent agent filed the application, the request usually goes through the agent, and the refund is credited back to the account from which the fee was paid.
Does this rule cover national phase fees in India?
No. Rule 19N sits in the PCT chapter and deals with fees paid to the Indian office when it acts as receiving office, searching authority or preliminary examining authority. Fees paid when a PCT application enters the Indian national phase, and fees such as the request for examination fee, are governed by the ordinary fee rule and the First Schedule, which contain their own refund situations.
Is there a time limit for asking?
The rule is concerned with the conditions for refund rather than with a long window for claiming it. As a matter of practice, ask as soon as the withdrawal or the failure of the application becomes clear, because the file is easier to trace and the payment easier to match while the matter is fresh. Delay does not improve the claim, and the current Rules should be checked for any specific period.
Withdrawing a PCT application filed through India?
MYCrave Consultancy checks which of your international fees can be recovered and prepares the refund request for you.
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