https://www.taxtmi.com/caselaws?id=177822 The Designs Act, 1911 protects only designs that are new or original and not previously published in India. Publication means disclosure to the public so that the design is no longer secret. Applying an ocular comparison, the Court found that the registered matchbox design had already been disclosed in earlier patent material, imported foreign matchboxes and magazine publications, all showing the same rectangular pattern with diamond-shaped spots. The alleged grooves and projections were treated as functional features and not the protectable novelty of the design. The design was therefore liable to cancellation for prior publication and lack of novelty or originality. en-us Thu, 26 May 1983 00:00:00 +0530 Tue, 19 Jan 2016 18:58:54 +0530 TaxTMI RSS Generator https://www.taxtmi.com/caselaws?id=177822 The Designs Act, 1911 protects only designs that are new or original and not previously published in India. Publication means disclosure to the public so that the design is no longer secret. Applying an ocular comparison, the Court found that the registered matchbox design had already been disclosed in earlier patent material, imported foreign matchboxes and magazine publications, all showing the same rectangular pattern with diamond-shaped spots. The alleged grooves and projections were treated as functional features and not the protectable novelty of the design. The design was therefore liable to cancellation for prior publication and lack of novelty or originality. Case-Laws Indian Laws Thu, 26 May 1983 00:00:00 +0530 https://www.taxtmi.com/caselaws?id=177822