Designs Act 2003

After a design is registered, the Registrar must make the following documents available for public inspection:

the design application in which the design was disclosed;

any representations that were included in the design application;

any statement of newness and distinctiveness in respect of the design that was included in the application;

any document filed in relation to the design (whether before or after its registration);

any document sent by the Registrar to the applicant or the registered owner in connection with the design (whether before or after its registration);

any other document relating to the design application that is in, or comes into, the possession of the Designs Office;

any other document prescribed by the regulations.

Despite subsection (1), the following documents are not to be made available for public inspection:

a document that would be privileged from production in legal proceedings on the ground of legal professional privilege;

a document that is subject to an order of a court or tribunal that prohibits disclosure of the document or information in the document;

a document required to be produced under paragraph 127(1)(c), if the Registrar is satisfied that the document, or information in the document, should not be open for public inspection;

a document that contains information obtained from a document to which any of paragraph (a), (b) or (c) applies.

If a document mentioned in subsection (1) has been amended, the document before and after amendment is to be made available for public inspection.

However, if:

more than one design was disclosed in the design application; and

any of the following apply:

the application was amended to exclude one or more of the designs;

one or more of the designs was withdrawn from the application;

one or more of the designs have not been registered;