The Patent (Amendment) Rules 2016 (‘Patent Amendment Rules’) were brought into force on May 16, 2016 to provide several incentives to ‘startups’ for facilitating IPR creation and protection, and clearing the huge backlog at the patent office, streamlining patent procedures and reducing the prosecution timelines. Some of the key amendments are mentioned below:i. A new applicant category, i.e., ‘startup’ has been introduced. A ‘startup’ is defined to mean an entity where: (a) more than five years have not lapsed from the date of its incorporation or registration; (b) the turnover for any financial year out of the five years has not exceeded Rs 25 crores (approximately US$ 3.7 million); and (c) it is working towards innovation, development, deployment or commercialisation of new products, processes or services driven by technology or IPR;ii. An applicant may request for expedited examination of the patent application within 48 months from the date of priority on the permitted grounds.iii. The timeline for filing the response to the first examination report has been reduced from 12 months to six months;iv. At the time of filing a national phase application (in India) corresponding to an international application filed under the Patent Cooperation Treaty, the applicant may now be allowed to delete claims; andv. The Controller General of Patents Designs and Trademarks will be required to dispose of the request for a foreign filing license within 21 days from the date of request. In case of inventions relating to defence or atomic energy, the period of 21 days would be considered from the date of receipt of consent from the Central Government.