| IRAN ? New Intellectual Property Law Finally in Force |
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April 25, 2008 |
The Iranian Assembly in its open session of January 23, 2008 ratified the new Intellectual Property Law in compliance to the WIPO model IP law. The law provides protection for Industrial Designs as well as Patents, Trademarks and Trade Names.
As per the new Law, a trademark application or registration can be contested on the following grounds:
- If it is incapable of distinguishing the goods or services of one enterprise from those of other enterprises;
- If it is contrary to religious requirements, public order, or good morality;
- If it is likely to mislead the public or trade circles as regards the geographical origin of the goods or services concerned or their nature or characteristics.
- If it is identical with, or is an imitation of or contains as an element, an armorial bearing, flag and other emblem, a name or abbreviation or initials of the name of, or official sign or hallmark adopted by, any state, intergovernmental organization or organization created by an international convention, unless authorized by the competent authority of that state or organization;
- If it is identical with, or confusingly similar to, or constitutes a translation of, a mark or trade name which is well known in Iran for identical or similar goods or services of another enterprise;
- If it is well-known and registered in Iran for services which are not identical or similar to those in respect of which registration is applied for, provided, in the latter case, that use of the mark in relation to those goods or services would indicate a connection between those goods or services and the owner of the well-known mark and that the interests of the owner of the well-known mark are likely to be damaged by such use;
- If it is identical with a mark belonging to a different proprietor and already on the register, or with an earlier filing or priority date, in respect of the same goods or services or closely related goods or services, or if it so nearly resembles such a mark as to be likely to deceive or cause confusion.
The new Law has changed the opposition procedure, too. The opposing party may file an opposition within thirty days from the publication date of the application in the Trademark Gazette, on the grounds that one or more of the above requirements are not fulfilled.
The Registrar shall send a copy of the opposition to the applicant and the applicant may send to the Registrar a counter-statement of the grounds on which he relies for his application, otherwise, he shall be deemed to have abandoned the application.
A landmark development in the new law is the protection of published applications. The law prescribes that after an application is published and until the registration of the mark, the applicant has the same rights as he would have if the mark had been registered. However, it would be a valid defense to an action brought hereunder in respect of an act done after the application was published, if the defendant establishes that the mark could not validly have been registered at the time the act was done.
The New Intellectual Property Law was published on April 20, 2008 and became effective from May 5, 2008. |
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