By Lucy Rana and Renu Bala
A record year, then a normalisation
The headline improvement in Indian patent processing is real, but it is best understood as a step-change followed by consolidation rather than a smooth downward line. According to the Office’s Annual Report 2024-25, a substantive internal reorganisation in 2023 promoted nearly 370 examiners to the rank of controller, and this contributed to a record final disposal of roughly 1.26 lakh patent applications in 2023-24, including the grant of over one lakh patents. That was an exceptional clearance year.
The 2024-25 figures return to a more typical level. The number of patents granted in 2024-25 was 33,504, which the report records as a decrease of about 67.49% from the 103,057 granted in the record preceding year. The Office is candid that the same reorganisation, coupled with delayed recruitment of new examiners owing to legal hurdles, produced increased pendency at the first-examination stage. In other words, a burst of capacity cleared a backlog of decisions, but sustaining throughput depends on replenishing examiner strength — hence the reported recruitment of 550 new Examiners of Patents.
The improvement is genuine; the trajectory is not a straight line. A record clearance year was followed by a normalisation and a fresh pendency pressure at first examination.
The fast lane runs on a different clock
For applicants weighing timelines, the single most consequential mechanism is expedited examination. Introduced for a limited set of applicants and expanded from September 2019 to further categories — including small entities, female applicants, government departments and bodies, and applications filed through the Patent Prosecution Highway — it has seen steadily rising uptake. Requests for expedited examination rose from 1566 in 2020-21 to 7,154 in 2024-25.
The report’s own characterisation is the key data point for anyone planning around grant timelines: for applications on the expedited route, grant or final disposal is, in the majority of cases, achieved within an average of about one year from the date of the request — compared with the period of several years that the normal examination route can require. That is the accurate version of the “years to months” narrative: not a blanket reduction across all applications, but a materially faster track available to those who qualify and elect it.
What the numbers suggest for applicants
Read together, the figures point to a system that has expanded capacity and built a credible fast lane, while still managing cyclical pendency at the examination stage. Several observations follow from the data, offered as analysis rather than as advice on any particular filing:
- Route selection affects timeline more than almost anything else. The gap between the expedited average of about one year and the normal route’s several years is the largest single lever in the published data.
- Eligibility for the fast lane is category-driven. The expanded categories mean many Indian applicants — start-ups, small entities, educational institutions, and others — fall within an expedited-eligible class.
- Pendency is cyclical, not resolved. The Office’s own note of renewed first-stage pendency is a reminder that headline disposal figures in any one year may reflect capacity events rather than a permanent new baseline.
Source for figures: CGPDTM Annual Report 2024-25 (Office of the Controller General of Patents, Designs, Trade Marks and Geographical Indications).
Frequently Asked Questions
Backlog Bottleneck FAQ
The accurate position, on the Office’s own figures, is that the expedited-examination route achieves grant or final disposal within an average of about one year in most cases, against several years on the normal route. It is a faster track for eligible applicants rather than a blanket reduction for all applications.
2023-24 was a record clearance year (over one lakh grants) driven by an internal reorganisation. Grants in 2024-25 stood at 33,504, a normalisation from that peak, and the Office noted increased first-stage pendency linked to delayed examiner recruitment.
The route was initially available to Start-ups and to applicants filing National phase applications where the Indian Patent Office had been selected as ISA/IPEA for the corresponding PCT international application. In September 2019, this route was extended to include 8 additional categories of applicants: small entities, female applicants, government departments, Institutions established by a Central, Provincial or State Act, that are owned or controlled by the Government, Government companies, institutions wholly or substantially financed by the Government, and applications filed under the Patent Prosecution Highway.
The Annual Report 2024-25 records recruitment of 550 new Examiners of Patents to strengthen examination capacity.