Intellectual
Property Rights
Patents
Act, 1970
CHAPTER
I: PRELIMINARY
1. Short title, extent and commencement
(1) This
Act may be called the Patents Act, 1970.
(2) It
extends to the whole of India.
(3) It
shall come into force on such date as the Central Government may, by notification
in the Official Gazette, appoint:
PROVIDED
that different dates may be appointed for different provisions of this
Act, and any reference in any such provision to the commencement of this
Act shall be construed as a reference to the coming into force of that
provision.
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
licence" means a licence from a patentee which confers on the licensee,
or 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) "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.
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