The Legal Question
Section 19(1)(b) permits cancellation of a registered design where it "has been disclosed to the public in India or in any other country" prior to the priority date. The question examined was what threshold of foreign disclosure suffices to defeat an Indian design registration — mere publication abroad in the abstract, or publication shown to have actually reached or become accessible in India.
The Position Clarified
The mere fact that a design was published or disclosed somewhere outside India does not, without more, establish prior publication sufficient to cancel an Indian registration. What must be shown is that the disclosure was of a kind and reach that would make the design known or reasonably accessible — whether through import, distribution, publication that circulated to India, or similar channels — rather than an isolated foreign disclosure with no demonstrated connection to the Indian market or Indian public.
Practical Implications
- Parties challenging a registered design on prior-publication grounds must build an evidentiary record showing the foreign disclosure's actual reach or relevance to India — a bare foreign publication date, without more, will not suffice.
- Design proprietors defending a registration against a foreign-publication challenge should scrutinise whether the alleged disclosure was genuinely accessible to or known in India before the priority date.
- This principle gives meaningful protection to designs that may have limited foreign circulation unconnected to the Indian market, while still respecting genuine instances of imported or internationally-circulated prior art.