Understanding The Oral Hearing Process Of Indian Patent Examination

Indian Patent Law prescribes that each patent application should be granted after a substantive examination. In India, the examination process starts after filing a formal request for examination only. That is why each patent application is taken up for examination in order of the date of Request for Examination and not by the date of filing of the patent application.

After conducting the substantive examination, the Indian Patent Office (IPO) issues a First Examination Report (FER). A response to the FER becomes due within 6 months from the date of issuance of FER; this due date can be extended by a maximum of 3 months upon filing a request for extension with the prescribed fee. It is pertinent to note here that the request for extension needs to be filed before the expiry of the initial 6 months period provided for responding to the FER. That is the request for extension cannot be filed retrospectively. The request for extension can be filed only once and it is not