(1)Subject to the following provisions of this section and to any rules made by the Board of Trade in pursuance of subsection (2) of section five of this Act, the representation or specimen of a design registered under this Act shall be open to inspection at the Patent 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 filed 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 Patent Office except by the registered proprietor, a person authorised in writing by the registered proprietor, or a person authorised by the registrar or by the 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 filed 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 the last foregoing subsection, 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 abandoned or refused, neither the application for registration nor any representation or specimen of the design filed in pursuance thereof shall at any time be open to inspection at the Patent Office or be published by the registrar.