Expedited Examination Requests Limited To 1000 In Number

The Patents (Amendments) Rules, 2016 (hereinafter referred to as Rules) that came into force on May 16, 2016 introduced the provision for Expedited Examination under Rule 24C of the Rules. 

Further, the Indian Patent Office (IPO) by way of a Public Notice on June 14, 2016, have notified that the number of requests for expedited examination to be received on or before December 31, 2016 has been limited to 1000 requests.

Applications for Expedited Examination shall be taken up on a first come first serve basis and the same can only be done via e-filing procedures only.  Strict time frames shall enable swift disposal of the abundant pending cases before the registry, which were reported around 2,37,029 as on February 1, 2016.