law: Patents Act, 1970
  2. Definitions and interpretation 
  (1) In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires,- 
  (a) "assignee" includes the legal
  
  representative of a deceased assignee, and references to the assignee of any
  
  person include references to the assignee of the legal representative or
  
  assignee of that person;
  (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 notified as such under sub-section (1) of section 133;
  (e) "district court" has the meaning
  
  assigned to that expression by the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908 (5 of 1908);
  (f) "exclusive license" means a
  
  license from a patentee which confers on the licensee, or on the licensee and
  
  persons authorized 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) "food" means any article of
  
  nourishment and includes any substance intended for the use of babies, invalids
  
  or convalescents as an article of food or drink;
  (h) "government under taking" means
  
  any industrial under taking carried on- 
  (i) by a department of
  
  the government; or
  (ii) by a corporation established by a
  
  Central, Provincial or State Act, which is owned or controlled by the
  
  government; or
  (iii) by a government company as defined in
  
  section 617 of the Companies Act, 1956 (1 of 1956), and includes the Council of
  
  Scientific and Industrial Research and any other institution which is financed
  
  wholly or for the major part by the said council;
  (i) "High Court" means- 
  (i) in relation to the
  
  Union territory of 
  
   Delhi , the High Court of 
  
   Delhi ;
  (ii) in relation to the State of Arunachal
  
  Pradesh and the State of Mizoram, the Gauhati High Court (the High Court of
  
  Assam, Nagaland, Meghalaya, Manipur, Tripura, Mizoram and Arunachal Pradesh);
  (iii) in relation to the Union territory of
  
  the Andaman and Nicobar Islands , the High Court at  Calcutta ;
  (iv) in relation to the Union territory of the
  
   Lakshadweep , the High Court of
  
  Kerala;
  (v) in relation to the Union territory of Goa,
  
  Daman and Diu and the Union territory of Dadra and Nagar Haveli, the High Court
  
  at Bombay;
  (vi) in relation to the Union  
  
   territory of 
  
   Pondicherry , the High Court at 
  
   Madras ;
  (vii) in relation to the Union  
  
   territory of 
  
   Chandigarh , the High Court of
  
  Punjab and Haryana; and
  (viii) in relation to
  
  any other state, the High Court for that state;
  (j) "invention"
  
  means any new and useful- 
  (i) art, process,
  
  method or manner of manufacture;
  (ii) machine,
  
  apparatus or other article;
  (iii) substance produced by manufacture, and
  
  includes any new and useful improvement of any of them, and an alleged
  
  invention;
  (k) "legal representative" means a
  
  person who in law represents the estate of a deceased person;
  (l) "medicine or drug" includes- 
  (i) all medicines for internal or external use
  
  of human beings or animals,
  (ii) all substances intended to be used for or
  
  in the diagnosis, treatment, mitigation or prevention of diseases in human
  
  beings or animals,
  (iii) all substances intended to be used for
  
  or in the maintenance of public health, or the prevention or control of any
  
  epidemic disease among human beings or animals,
  (iv) insecticides, germicides, fungicides,
  
  weedicides and all other substances intended to be used for the protection or
  
  preservation of plants,
  (v) all chemical substances which are
  
  ordinarily used as intermediates in the preparation or manufacture of any of
  
  the medicines or substances above referred to;
  (m) "patent" means a patent granted
  
  under this Act and includes for the purposes of sections 44, 49, 50, 51, 52,
  
  54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 63, 65, 66, 68, 69, 70, 78, 134, 140, 153, 154 and 156 and
  
  Chapters XVI, XVII and XVIII, a patent granted under the Indian Patents and
  
  Designs Act, 1911 (2 of 1911);
  (n) "patent agent" means a person
  
  for the time being registered under this Act as a patent agent;
  (o) "patented article" and
  
  "patented process" mean 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;
  (u) "prescribed" means, in relation to
  
  proceedings before a High Court, prescribed by rules made by the High Court,
  
  and in other cases, prescribed by rules made under this Act;
  (v) "prescribed manner" includes the
  
  payment of the prescribed fee;
  (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.