Patent Restoration in India: the 18-Month Rule After Lapse

Explainer · Patents · Last verified October 2026

Updated for 2026 · Claw Editorial

A patent can lapse quietly. A renewal fee is missed, the due date passes, and the patent ceases to have effect, often without anyone noticing until a licensee, a buyer or an infringer raises it. The one fact to hold on to is this: under section 60 of the Patents Act, 1970, the patentee can apply for restoration within 18 months from the date the patent ceased to have effect, using Form 15. This page explains how that window works, what the Controller needs to be satisfied about, and what to do in the first days after you find a lapse. It was last verified in October 2026.

01How a patent lapses in India

A patent in India lapses when the renewal fee is not paid on time. Section 53 of the Patents Act sets a 20 year term, but the patent stays alive only if the renewal fee is paid every year after the grant formalities.

The due date and the grace period

The rules allow the fee to be paid late within a limited extension, with an extra charge. Only after that extension runs out does the patent cease to have effect. The date of ceasing matters a lot, because the 18 month restoration clock starts from it, not from the date you found out.

Why lapses are missed

Most lapses are not strategic decisions. They come from a change of agent, a merger or an asset sale, a founder who left, or an email reminder that went to a shared inbox nobody reads. The IP India register may still show the patent as granted for some time, so a team relying on a quick look can feel safe when the patent is already dead.

02The 18-month rule under section 60

Section 60 of the Patents Act, 1970 allows the patentee to apply for restoration within 18 months from the date the patent ceased to have effect. This is the central rule of the whole topic.

Under section 60 of the Patents Act, a lapsed patent can be restored if Form 15 is filed within 18 months of the date it ceased to have effect.

Three points make the rule easier to apply.

• Who can apply: the person who was the patentee when the patent ceased, and in many cases a person claiming through them, such as an assignee or a legal representative.
• The form: Form 15, filed under Rule 84 of the Patents Rules, 2003.
• The window is a hard limit: the Act does not give the Controller power to stretch it. Treat the 18 months as a deadline, not a target.

Because the window counts from the lapse date and not from discovery, the earlier you check the register, the more room you have to gather evidence and draft a proper application.

03Filing Form 15: step by step

Form 15 is the application for restoration, filed with the Patent Office along with the fee and a statement of what happened. A clean file usually has the following parts.

1. Confirm the facts on the register

Check the patent number, the current owner of record, the renewal history and the exact date of ceasing. If the owner of record is not the person applying, fix the title chain first, because the Controller will look at who is asking.

2. Prepare the statement of circumstances

The application must explain why the fee was not paid, in a way that shows the failure was unintentional. Write the timeline in plain facts: who was responsible, what reminder system existed, what went wrong, and when the owner first learned of the lapse. Support it with affidavits and records, for example email trails, agent instructions or internal tickets.

3. Pay the fees

The applicant pays the Form 15 filing fee, and the overdue renewal fees along with any late-payment charges must also be dealt with.

4. Filing and Controller review

The Controller examines the application and may ask for more evidence or call a hearing. If the Controller is satisfied, the application is published for opposition. If not, the application is refused, and the order can be challenged by appeal. For appeals against Controller orders, see our explainer on section 117A patent appeals.

Also check whether your pending paperwork has changed under the newer rules. For forms that moved or were merged after 2024, read Form 3 after the 2024 Patent Rules as a model of how those changes can affect filings.

04The unintentional-failure test

The core question for the Controller is whether the failure to pay the renewal fee was unintentional. If you cannot show that, restoration will not be granted. The Act asks for reasonable care to have been taken, so a patentee who simply forgot because nobody was watching has a weaker story than one whose system failed despite real effort.

What helps your case

• Written proof that you meant to keep the patent alive, such as licensing talks, working statements or paid earlier renewals.
• A real reminder process that failed, with documents to show it.
• Prompt action after you found the lapse. Delay inside the 18 months can hurt a case even though it is still legally in time.

What hurts your case

• Evidence that the owner decided to let the patent go and then changed their mind after a commercial opportunity appeared.
• Vague explanations with no records behind them.
• Inconsistent dates between the affidavit, the agent file and the register.

Courts and the Patent Office decisions on this point are fact heavy. Read a few recent orders on the IP India decisions pages and on Indian Kanoon before you frame your statement.

05After restoration: rights of third parties

Restoration brings the patent back, but it does not erase what other people did while it was lapsed. The Act protects certain people who started using the invention in good faith during the gap, and it can limit what the patentee can claim for that period.

This matters most to a business that planned to sue an infringer. An infringer who began before restoration may have a defence for continued use of what they set up. If you are weighing a suit, take advice on how the gap period will be treated before you file. For how AI tools help plan that kind of dispute, see AI litigation strategy tools in India.

The restored patent also needs its renewals paid from the lapse date onwards, so budget for all overdue fees and keep a clean record of payment.

06When restoration is not available

Restoration under section 60 has real limits, and it is better to know them before you spend on a file.

• The 18 months have passed. After that, the patent cannot be restored under section 60.
• The reason for the lapse was a choice. If the non-payment was intentional, the test is not met.
• The patent ended for another reason. A patent that was revoked or expired at the end of its term cannot be restored. Section 60 only covers lapse for non-payment of renewal fees.
• Someone else has strong rights from the gap. The restoration may still be granted, but its value can shrink.

Restoration also does not fix other defects. If the patent had validity problems before it lapsed, restoration brings those problems back with it.

Other countries run their own revival rules with different time limits. WIPO has overview material on national and regional rules, which is useful if the same family lapsed in several places.

07Where Claw fits

Claw is an all-in-one legaltech platform for Indian advocates, law firms, and corporate legal teams, combining AI-based case search, an AI legal assistant (Legal GPT), case management, and compliance automation across all Indian courts and tribunals.

A restoration file turns on dates and on how the Controller and the courts have read the unintentional-failure test under section 60. Claw tracks cases, orders and hearings across 9,102 courts, benches and forums, with 30 crore+ judgments and results under 5 seconds, so you can pull how a High Court has treated a restoration refusal and follow a live IP matter by party or advocate name. Its judgment coverage runs from 1950 for the Supreme Court and from 1990 for the High Courts, and Claw does not use customer documents to train AI models.

Create a FREE Claw account to research restoration orders and track IP litigation by party or advocate name. To search the wider body of law, see case search across Indian courts.

08Sources and further reading

Check every point on this page against the primary sources below before you file.

• Controller General of Patents, Designs and Trade Marks (IP India): ipindia.gov.in
• Patents Act, 1970 (India Code): indiacode.nic.in
• Indian court decisions: indiankanoon.org
• WIPO: wipo.int
• Claw: clawlaw.in

This page is general information, not legal advice. Last verified October 2026. Rules and fees change, so confirm them on IP India before filing.

09Frequently asked questions