GENERAL PROVISIONS
Article 48 – Any changes in the ownership of a Patent, the registration of an Industrial Design or the registration of a Mark or Collective Mark, or the right of ownership derived from filing an application thereof, at the written request of any interested party submitted to the Industrial Property Office shall be recorded and, except in the case of changes in the ownership of an application, shall be published by the said Office. Such changes shall have no effect against third parties until such request is filed.
Any change in the ownership of the registration of a Mark or a Collective Mark shall be invalid if it is likely to deceive or cause confusion in regard to the nature, origin, manufacturing process, characteristics, or suitability for the purpose of the goods or services in relation to which the Mark or Collective Mark is intended to be used or is being used
Any change in the ownership of registration of a Collective Mark, or in the ownership of an application thereof, shall require prior approval of the Head of State Organization for Registration of Deeds and Properties.
Article 49 – Any change in the ownership of a Trade Name must be made with the transfer of the enterprise or part thereof identified by that name.
Article 50 – Any License Contract concerning a patent, registered Industrial Designs or a registered Mark, or an application thereof, shall be submitted to the Industrial Property Office. The said Office shall keep the contents of the said contract confidential but shall record it and publish a reference thereto. The effect of such contracts against third parties shall be subject to fulfillment of the above mentioned procedures.
Article 51 – Where an applicant’s place of residence or principal place of business is outside Iran, his legal representative that resides and practices in Iran, may carry out the required steps as his representative.
Article 52 – (1) The State Organization for Registration of Deeds and Properties shall be responsible for the Industrial Property matters and shall represent the Islamic Republic of Iran at the World Intellectual Property Organization and the Unions relating to the respective conventions.
Registration of all Industrial Property matters including Patents, Marks, Collective Marks, and Industrial Designs shall also be carried out by the Industrial Property Office of The State Organization for Registration of Deeds and Properties. In cases where, by law, other bodies and organizations carry out examination and registration processes, they shall enjoy the protection and privileges provided for by the present Act if their proprietorship or patent, as the case may be, is duly registered at the Industrial Property Office.
Article 53 – The State Organization for Registration of Deeds and Properties shall, by making use of modern methods, maintain separate Registers for Patents, Industrial Designs and Marks. Collective Marks shall be registered in a special section of the Register of Marks.
Article 54 – The data appearing in the Registers shall be accessible to all persons, and any person may obtain his required information under the conditions as prescribed in the Regulations.
Article 55 – The Industrial Property Office shall publish all the publications provided for in this Act in the Official Gazette.
Article 56 – The Industrial Property Office is authorized to correct any error of translation or transcription, clerical error, errors or mistakes in any application or in any recording affected pursuant to this Act or the Regulations.
Article 57 – Upon receiving a written request for extension of any deadline for any act as prescribed in the present Act or the Regulations, and upon considering the prevailing circumstances, the Industrial Property Office may proceed to extend the respective deadline. This extension shall take place by sending a notice to the parties concerned under the provisions stipulated in the Regulations.
Article 58 – The Industrial Property Office, before exercising the discretionary powers vested in the said Office by law, shall give any party against whom the said Office wishes to make a decision, a sufficient opportunity to present his statement. In such cases, any decision shall be made by taking into due consideration the said Statement.
Article 59 – Disputes relating to the application of this Act and the Regulations shall fall within the scope of jurisdiction of special Section or Sections of the Public Court of Tehran that shall be designated by the head of the Judiciary within a maximum period of six months, from approval of the present Act.
Any decision taken by the Industrial Property Office may be subject of appeal by any interested party who may file their appeal through a petition lodged with the competent court within two months from the date of servicing or notification of the decision. Appealing against the decisions and their examination shall be governed in accordance with the Iranian Civil Procedure Act for the Public and Revolutionary Courts in Civil Matters.
Article 60 – Infringement of the rights mentioned in the present Act shall consist of performance of any act in Iran by a person other than the owner of the rights that enjoy protection under the present Act and without the agreement of the latter.
In addition to the owner of the rights protected under the present Act, if it is established that a licensee has requested the owner to institute court proceedings for a specific relief and the owner has refused or failed to do so, the Court may, in addition to granting an injunction to prevent infringement or an imminent infringement, award damages and grant any other remedy to administer justice.
Article 61 – Any person who, knowingly and intentionally, performs an act which constitutes an infringement as defined under Articles 15, 28 and 40 or an unlawful act as defined in Article 47, shall be guilty of an offence punishable by a fine ten million (10,000,000 Rial) to fifty million (50,000,000 Rial) in Iranian currency or imprisonment term of 91 days to 6 months or both as well as payment of any damages arising from the said acts.
In civil proceedings in respect of violation of the rights of the owner of the patent, where the subject matter of the patent is a process for obtaining a product, if the following conditions are fulfilled, the burden of establishing that a product was not made by the said process shall be on the defendant in the infringement action. In this case, if the required documents and evidences are submitted, the Court shall take into account the legitimate interests of the defendant in not disclosing his manufacturing and business secrets.
a) The product is new.
b) A substantial likelihood exists that the product was made by the said process and the owner of the registered rights, despite reasonable efforts, has been unable to determine the process actually used.
Article 62 – In case of conflicts between the provisions of this Act and the provisions of any international treaties in respect of Intellectual Property to which Iran is or will become a party, provision of the said treaties shall prevail.
Article 61– Through prescription of the required provisions in the Annual Budget Acts, up to fifty (50%) percent of the income in foreign exchanges derived through implementation of Conventions pertaining to international registration of Industrial Property, that is acquired after approval of the present Act, shall be allocated in the respective Annual Budget Act to promotion and improvement of the Industrial Property Office’s equipments so as to enhance quality of performance of the said Office.
Article 64 -The Regulations for the execution of this Act shall be prepared by The State Organization for Registration of Deeds and Properties within one year after its approval and shall be further approved by the Head of the Judiciary Power. The said Regulations shall, in particular, provide for the schedule of the respective fees for applications for the grant of patents and for the registration of Industrial Designs, Marks and Collective Marks, renewals and fines for late payments with due observation of provisions of the present Act and those of the concerned Conventions to which Islamic Republic of Iran is a member, and shall be revised every three years, if necessary.
Article 65 -The patents and trademarks registered under the previous act shall remain in force and shall be protected by the present Act. In this case:
a. As for patents, the annual maintenance fees provided for in the present Act must be duly paid for the remaining period of their validity.
b. Trademarks shall be renewed on their due date under the previous Act and, upon renewal, shall be reclassified according to the International Classification.
Article 66 – From theenforcement date of the present Act, the Trademarks and Patents Registration Act dated 1931, its subsequent revisions and amendments and the Regulations for the Execution of the same shall be repealed.
The above Act, comprising of sixty six Articles, was duly approved at the meeting dated 29 October 2007 of the Judicial and Legal Commission of the Islamic Consultative Assembly under Article 85 of the Constitution of Islamic Republic of Iran, and after agreement of the Assembly with the pilot execution of the same for a period of five years, it was further approved by the Guardian Council on 12th February 2008.