specimen or document kept in the Designs Office or an extract from the
register or any such document, purporting to be certified by the
Registrar and to be sealed with the seal of the Patent Office, shall be
admitted in evidence without further proof and without production of
the original.
Inspection of
27. (1) Subject to the provisions of this section and to any regulation
made by the Minister in pursuance of subsection (3) of section eleven, registered
the representation or specimen of a design registered under this Act shall designs
be open to inspection at the Designs Office on and after the day on
which the certificate of registration is issued.
(2) In the case of a design registered in respect of an article of any class
prescribed for the purposes of this subsection, no representation or
specimen of the design lodged in pursuance of the application shall,
until the expiration of such period after the day on which the certificate
of registration is issued as may be prescribed in relation to articles of
that class, be open to inspection at the Designs Office except by the
registered proprietor, a person authorised in writing by the registered
proprietor, or a person authorised by the Registrar, the High Court or
Supreme Court:
Provided that where the Registrar proposes to refuse an application for
the registration of any other design on the ground that it is the same as
the first-mentioned design or differs from that design only in immaterial
details or in features which are variants commonly used in the trade, the
applicant shall be entitled to inspect the representation or specimen of
the first-mentioned design lodged in pursuance of the application for
registration of that design.
(3) In the case of a design registered in respect of an article of any class
prescribed for the purposes of subsection (2), the representation or
specimen of the design shall not, during the period prescribed as
aforesaid, be inspected by any person by virtue of this section except in
the presence of the Registrar or of an officer acting under him; and
except in the case of an inspection authorised by the proviso to that
subsection, the person making the inspection shall not be entitled to take
a copy of the representation or specimen of the design or any part
thereof.
(4) Where an application for the registration of a design has been