44. Reciprocal arrangement with the United Kingdom and other convention countries or group of countries or inter-governmental organizations.- (1) Any person who has applied for protection for any design in the United Kingdom or any of other convention countries or group of countries or countries which are members of inter-governmental organisations, or his legal representative or assignee shall, either alone or jointly with any other person, be entitled to claim that the registration of the said design under this Act shall be in priority to other applicants and shall have the same date as the date of the application in the United Kingdom or any of such other convention countries or group of countries or countries which are members of inter-governmental organisations, as the case may be: Provided that- (a) the application is made within six months from the application for protection in the United Kingdom or any such other convention countries or group of countries or countries which are members of inter-governmental organisations, as the case may be; and (b) nothing in this section shall entitle the proprietor of the design to recover damages for piracy of design happening prior to the actual date on which the design is registered in India. (2) The registration of a design shall not be invalidated by reason only of the exhibition or use of or the publication of a description or representation of the design in India during the period specified in this section as that within which the application may be made. (3) The application for registration of a design under this section has been made in the same manner as an ordinary application under this Act. (4) Where it is made to appear to the Central Government that the legislature of the United Kingdom or any such other convention country or a country which is member of any group of countries or inter-governmental organisation as may be notified by the Central Government in this behalf has made satisfactory provision for the protection of designs registered in India, the Central Government may, by notification in the Official Gazette, direct that the provisions of this section, with such variations or additions, if any, as may be set out in such notification, shall apply for the protection of designs registered in the United Kingdom or that other convention country or such country which is member of any group of countries or inter-governmental organisation, as the case may be. Explanation 1.-For the purposes of this section, the expression "convention countries", "group of countries" or "inter-governmental organisation" means, respectively, such countries, group of countries or inter-governmental organisation to which the Pari Convention for Protection of Industrial Property, 1883 as revised at Stockholm in 1967 and as amended in 1979 or the Final Act, embodying the results of the Uruguay Round of Multilateral Trade Negotiations, provided for the establishment of World Trade Organisation applies. Explanation 2.-Where more than one application for protection referred to in sub-section (1) has been made for similar protections in the United Kingdom or one or more convention countries, group of countries or countries which are members of inter-governmental organisations, the period of six months referred to in clause (a) of that sub-section shall be reckoned from the date of which the earlier or the earliest application, as the case may be, of such applications has been made.
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