(1)

In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires,—

(a) "Appellate Board " means the Appellate Board referred to in section 116;

(b) "Controller " means the Controller General of Patents, Designs and Trade Marks referred to in section 73;

(c) "convention application " means an application for a patent made by virtue of section 135;

(d) "convention country " means a country or a country which is member of a group of countries or a union of countries or an Intergovernmental organization referred to as a convention country in section 133;

(e) "district court " has the meaning assigned to that expression by the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908 (5 of 1908);

(f) “exclusive licence” means a licence from a patentee which confers on the licensee, on the licensee and persons authorised by him, to the exclusion of all other persons (including the patentee), any right in respect of the patented invention, and exclusive licensee shall be construed accordingly.

(g) Omitted by the Patents (Amendment) Act, 2005

(h) "Government undertaking " means any industrial undertaking carried on—

(i) "High Court ", in relation to a State or Union territory, means the High Court having territorial jurisdiction in that State or Union territory, as the case may be;

(j) "invention " means a new product or process involving an inventive step and capable of industrial application;

(k) "legal representative " means a person who in law represents the estate of a deceased person;

(l) "new invention " means any invention or technology which has not been anticipated by publication in any document or used in the country or elsewhere in the world before the date of filing of patent application with complete specification, i.e., the subject matter has not fallen in public domain or that it does not form part of the state of the art;

(m) "patent " means a patent for any invention granted under this Act;

(n) "patent agent " means a person for the time being registered under this Act as a patent agent;

(o) "patented article " and "patented process " means respectively an article or process in respect of which a patent is in force;

(p) "patentee " means the person for the time being entered on the register as the grantee or proprietor of the patent;

(q) "patent of addition " means a patent granted in accordance with section 54;

(r) "patent office " means the patent office referred to in section 74;

(s) "person " includes the Government;

(t) "person interested " includes a person engaged in, or in promoting, research in the same field as that to which the invention relates;

(w) "priority date " has the meaning assigned to it by section 11;

(x) "register " means the register of patents referred to in section 67;

(y) "true and first inventor " does not include either the first importer of an invention into India, or a person to whom an invention is first communicated from outside India.

(2)

In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires, any reference—

(a) to the Controller shall be construed as including a reference to any officer discharging the functions of the Controller in pursuance of section 73;

(b) to the patent office shall be construed as including a reference to any branch office of the patent office.