Rule 19B

International search report

1 - The Searching Authority shall, on receipt of the search copy, notify the International Bureau and the applicant about the receipt of search copy with identification mark 'ISA/IN' along with the international application number and its serial number and the date of receipt of the search copy.

2 - Notwithstanding anything contained in the proviso to item (i) of sub-rule (2) of rule 24B, the Searching Authority shall, upon receipt of the search copy, refer the international application, in the order in which the search copy was received, to an examiner or any other officer appointed under sub-section (2) of Section 73 of the Act for preparing an international search report, in accordance with the provisions contained in the Treaty and the regulations under the Treaty, ordinarily within a period of one month but not exceeding two months from the date of such reference.

3 - The Searching Authority, if it considers that-

3(a) - the international application relates to a subject matter which the Searching Authority is not required to search and accordingly decides not to search; or

3(b) - the description, claims or drawings fail to comply with the requirements prescribed under the regulation under the Treaty to such an extent that a meaningful search could not be carried out, the Authority shall so declare and notify the applicant and the International Bureau that no international search report shall be established.

4 - In a case where any situation referred to in clause (a) or clause (b) of sub-rule (3) is found to exist in connection with certain claims only, the Searching Authority shall indicate this fact in the International Search Report in respect of such claims, and for other claims, it shall establish the International Search Report.

5 - The Searching Authority, if it considers that the international application does not comply with the requirement of unity of invention, in accordance with the provisions contained in Rule 13 of the regulations under the Treaty, shall send a notice specifying the reasons for which the international application is not considered as complying with the requirement of unity of invention and inviting the applicant-

5(a) - to pay the additional fees specified in the Fifth Schedule, indicating the amount of fees to be paid, within a period of one month from the date of such invitation; and

5(b) - to pay, where applicable, the protest fee specified in the Fifth Schedule, indicating the amount of fee to be paid, within a period of one month from the date of such invitation.

6 - The Searching Authority shall establish the International Search Report on those parts of the international application which relate to the invention first mentioned in the claims (main invention) and subject to payment of additional fee within the period specified in sub-rule (5), on those parts of the international application which relate to inventions in respect of which such additional fees were paid.

7 - Any applicant may pay the additional fees under protest, that is, accompanied by a reasoned statement to the effect that the international application complies with the requirement of unity of invention or that the amount of the required additional fees is excessive.

8 - The examination of the protest referred to in sub-rule (7) shall be carried out by a Review Committee constituted by the Controller.

9 - The Review Committee constituted under sub-rule (8) shall examine the extent to which the protest is justified and shall accordingly order for the total or partial reimbursement of the additional fee to the applicant.

10 - Where the applicant has not paid the fees for the protest in accordance with clause (b) of sub-rule (5),the protest shall be considered not to have been made and the Searching Authority shall so declare.

11 - The protest fee shall be refunded to the applicant where the Review Committee referred to in sub-rule (8) finds that the protest was entirely justified.

12 - Where the international application contains the disclosure of one or more nucleotide or amino acid sequences and the sequences are not furnished in computer-readable text format, the Searching Authority shall send a notice to the applicant to submit the sequence listing in computer-readable text format and pay the late furnishing fee specified in the Fifth Schedule, within a period of one month from the date of such notice and if the applicant fails to comply with the notice, the Searching Authority shall search the international application to the extent that a meaningful search can be carried out without the sequence listing.