Foreign Filing License is a permission, which the applicant or inventor has to seek from the Indian Patent Office under the following circumstances:
a person is residing in India during the development of an invention and wishes to file the patent application for the same invention first outside India; or
applicant wishes to file a patent application for an invention outside India, before the expiry of 6 months from the date of filing of the patent application for the same invention in India.
In case the applicant fails to comply with the aforementioned mandates, he shall be punishable with imprisonment for a term which may extend to 2 years, or with fine, or with both.