How to Do a Patent Search in India: InPASS and IPO Step by Step (2026)

How-To · Patent Search

Updated for 2026 · Claw Editorial

You have an invention idea, a competitor product, or a patent number from a client, and you need to know what already exists in India. Paid databases are costly, and many people do not know the Patent Office offers a free public search. The short answer: use InPASS, the Indian Patent Advanced Search System, at iprsearch.ipindia.gov.in. You can search by title, abstract, applicant, inventor, application or patent number, or IPC class, and check status for free. If you also need to follow prosecution status and deadlines across many matters, a tracker such as Claw can handle that part.

01Why a patent search matters

A patent search answers a simple question: has someone already filed or been granted rights on this idea in India? Getting the answer wrong costs money in three ways.

• Wasted filing fees. If your invention is not new, the application is likely to be refused.
• Infringement risk. Launching a product that falls inside a granted claim can lead to a dispute.
• Missed information. A client may ask whether a patent is still alive, who owns it, or what stage it has reached.

Many first searches fail for a small reason. People type one keyword on a general search engine, see nothing, and conclude the field is empty. The official database is the better place to start, and it is free.

02What InPASS is

InPASS stands for Indian Patent Advanced Search System. It is the public search tool of the Indian Patent Office (IPO), which works under the Controller General of Patents, Designs and Trademarks. You can reach it at iprsearch.ipindia.gov.in/PublicSearch.

InPASS lets you look up published patent applications and granted patents. It supports full-text search, Boolean operators and wildcards. The IPO homepage at ipindia.gov.in also links to other services, including application status and the patent e-register.

03Step by step: how to search patents on InPASS

Follow these steps for a clean first search.

Step 1: Open the public search page

Go to the InPASS page. You do not need an account for a public search.

Step 2: Choose what you are searching

Pick the publication search to look at published applications and granted patents. If you already have an application number and only want its current stage, use the status route instead.

Step 3: Pick your search fields

The common fields are title, abstract, claims, description, application number, patent number, applicant name, inventor name, and IPC class. Date filters are also available. Start with title and abstract. Add claims if you want a closer match.

Step 4: Enter smart keywords

Use several words for the same idea. For example, search "solar" OR "photovoltaic". Use AND to join concepts and NOT to remove noise. Wildcards help with word endings, such as "charg*" for charge, charger and charging.

Step 5: Narrow by IPC class and date

Add an IPC class if you know it, and set a date range. This keeps the list short enough to read.

Step 6: Open each result

Do not judge by the title alone. Open the record. Read the abstract and the claims. Note the applicant, the filing date, the priority date and the legal status.

Step 7: Save your work

Write down the query, the date you ran it, the fields you used, and the records you found. A search you cannot repeat is hard to defend later.

To search by a known applicant, type the name in the applicant field and try spelling variations. Company names are often entered in more than one way, such as with and without "Pvt" or "Limited".

04Full-text search vs bibliographic search

These two ideas matter because they change what you find.

• Bibliographic search looks at the details around the patent: title, applicant, inventor, application number, patent number, dates and class. It is best when you already know who or what you are looking for.
• Full-text search looks inside the document: the abstract, the claims and the description. It is best when you know the idea but not the owner.

Titles are often vague. A patent called "A device and method" tells you nothing. A full-text search on the claims and description can find it when a title search cannot. So run both. Use the bibliographic route to check a known party, and the full-text route to hunt for an idea.

A title search finds what a patent is called. A full-text search finds what it actually claims.

05IPC classification: the shortcut most people skip

The International Patent Classification (IPC) sorts inventions into a tree of classes. The top level has eight sections, from A (human necessities) to H (electricity). Each section breaks into classes, subclasses, groups and subgroups. The system is run by WIPO and used by Patent Offices worldwide. See the WIPO IPC page.

Why does this help? Different people describe the same invention in different words. A class code does not change with wording. If you find one close patent, note its IPC class and search that class too. This often surfaces related patents your keywords missed.

A practical method:

1. Run a keyword search and find one or two close patents.
2. Copy their IPC classes.
3. Search those classes with a date range.
4. Add keywords again to narrow the list.

06Where InPASS stops: why FTO and prior art go further

InPASS is a good starting point, and it is also limited. Know the limits before you rely on a result.

• India only. An invention may be public in another country, which counts as prior art. InPASS will not show it.
• Not all prior art is a patent. Journals, conference papers, websites and products on sale can also destroy novelty.
• Publication lag. Applications are generally not public the moment they are filed, so a very recent filing may not appear yet.
• Keywords miss things. Even full-text search depends on your words and operators.
• No legal opinion. A search result is a list of records. It does not say whether you infringe or whether your invention is patentable. Claims need careful reading, often by a patent attorney.

This is why a freedom to operate (FTO) search and a full prior-art search are separate, deeper jobs. They add foreign databases, non-patent literature, claim-by-claim analysis and a written view. Read our guide to freedom to operate search in India for how that works. To compare commercial tools that add AI to this work, see the best AI patent search tools in India.

If your real task is a trademark rather than a patent, the status terms are different. See the trademark status codes glossary. For people-related checks such as employee litigation history, see litigation checks for employee onboarding. For contract work around licences and assignments, see AI contract review software.

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.

Be clear about the division of work. InPASS is where you search the patent record. It is not a case management tool, and Claw is not a replacement for the official patent database or for a professional FTO search.

Where Claw helps is the follow-up. Once you know which patent or application matters, you need to keep track of its prosecution status, hearings and deadlines, and not lose them in a spreadsheet. Claw tracks that status and those dates, with calendar reminders and WhatsApp and email alerts. It tracks matters across 8200+ courts and tribunals. Claw has a free plan for individual advocates. Paid plans for teams and enterprises are separate, and Enterprise is on quote. Claw does not use customer case documents to train AI models.

08Sources and further reading

• InPASS, Indian Patent Advanced Search System: iprsearch.ipindia.gov.in
• Indian Patent Office: ipindia.gov.in
• WIPO, International Patent Classification: wipo.int
• Claw: clawlaw.in

Last verified: October 2026. Government sites change their layout and field names from time to time, so check the live page. This guide is general information, not legal advice.

09Frequently asked questions