Having a 100-year background in setting IP rights and regulations, Iran has taken some steps in revising and updating the affiliated rules as well as securing copyright for the generated content or new innovations. All is done to support the modern and knowledge-based businesses or information technologies which are generic in the sense of being useful in many places in the economy.
According to the International Property Rights Index 2018, Iran ranks 91st among 125 countries and 13th among 17 MENA countries (including Turkey and Pakistan).
The country has registered an improvement of 16 levels from its previous 107th in 2013 to the current 91st, while the major development has occurred during the past recent year, according to the same report.
The index has shown 0.22 percent increase in 2018 for Iran; gaining 4.74 score out of 10, it says.
During the past eight years, Iran could manage to get the average score of 4.30 (in a zero to 10 scale), while the international average score stands at 5.47.
The Islamic country is a member of Paris Convention- which secures the protection of industrial property as well as Madrid Protocol that allows a trademark owner to seek registration in any of the countries that have joined the Madrid Protocol. It also seeks to go under Lisbon Agreement, which is a special agreement under Article 19 of the Paris Convention for the protection of industrial property as well as Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) which provides a unified procedure for filing patent applications to protect inventions in each of its contracting states. Berne Convention for the protection of literary and artistic works is the other convection that Iran aims to join.
It has signed several cooperation agreements with various countries and international organizations which have a big name in making IP rights. As reported, Switzerland, France, south Korea, Denmark, China, Turkey, Russia and the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) are among Iran’s partners in IP sector.
Despite the efforts to improve the status quo of IP in Iran, the country still remains among those with lowest positions in the ranking queue. Unfortunately, majority of Iranians are not yet familiar with IP and the fact can amount to discrimination and is able to impede competitiveness and equal benefiting from resources.
Improving the IP index of the country stands among the requirements of economic development.
Danish Ambassador, expert explain bilateral IP co-op with Iran
Denmark stands among the most cooperative countries with Iran on IP rights.
In an interview with the Mehr news agency, Denmark's Ambassador to Tehran Danny Annan and the IP Sector Counsellor at the Embassy of Denmark in Iran Terkel Hallberg Borg described the status quo of Iran-Denmark cooperation on IP field.
"I can tell you that we have been very busy since the time the Iranian Intellectual Property Center and the Danish Patent and Trademark Office inaugurated their three-year close cooperation within the area of IP rights in September, 2018," Ambassador Annan said expressing content.
"We have had 29 mutual visits to Iran and Denmark and there has been exchange of experience between patent and trademark experts of judiciary. The project is actually expanding," he added.
"Initially, there was much focus on capacity building and sharing of experience at Iranian patent office. Now, it is not only patents we are talking about but also trademarks, copyright and it is not only the office itself but also the police and judiciary, the whole value chain when it comes to patents and trademarks," the Danish Ambassador said.
"That is one of the projects that I am mostly proud of because it is really moving ahead and it is clear to both sides partners that there is a mutual interest in this project," he concluded.
To provide more detail about the issue Mr. Hallberg went on.
“The main aim of this Danish-Iranian partnership is to positively affect Iran’s sustainable and inclusive growth, especially within knowledge-intensive sectors. Iran has a remarkable potential in this area and ranks third worldwide within science and engineering education with more than a quarter million candidates that graduate from Iranian universities each year, of whom 70 per cent are women. If that level of human capital is to be transferred into economic growth, the system for protecting innovation and intellectual property needs to be strong. This is also the policy of the government of Iran and Denmark is happy to contribute with our own experiences to support the Iranian ambitions,” the Danish expert told MNA.
“All the Danish expert delegations that we have brought to Iran have been positively surprised by the warm hospitality of Iranian authorities in receiving them and engaging in technical and complicated discussions about how best to protect intellectual property. Our two countries are of course very different but Denmark has worked for many years to bring its intellectual property legislation and institutional practices to a high level and by sharing those experiences with our Iranian partners, the authorities here can get some useful inputs as to how that development is best supported in Iran,” he added.
“One of the areas where Denmark public authorities has invested a lot of energy in recent years is within standardizing internal work procedures and building sophisticated quality management systems so that all applications for protection of intellectual property are judged from consistent criteria. This also helps efficiency and speed in case processing. Annually, Iran received more than 15,000 patent applications, which is the fourth highest number amongst the lower and upper middle-income countries, after China, India, and the Russian Federation. The amount of applications continues to rise and shows the importance of having an efficient and first-rate case-processing system in Iran, which is one of the key areas that we work on with the Intellectual Property Office,” Mr. Hallberg said.
“Currency, we have experience-sharing activities and workshops with the Intellectual Property Center, Iranian Customs, Office of the Public Prosecutors, judges from criminal and civil courts, and experts from the Iranian Consultative Assembly and the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance. And we keep on adding new Iranian partners that have an interest in our project,” he informed.
“In my opinion, a project like this shows the clear benefit of countries like Iran and Denmark engaging in long-term technical cooperation and partnerships that will undoubtedly also strengthen our bilateral relations and dialogue about other issues of common interests,” he concluded.
The IP contract signed between Iran and Denmark stands among the most influential and practical ones between the two counties. As of December 13, 2016, when the contract was signed in Tehran on a sidelines of a seminar, till the present date, around 15 important types of cooperation such as conducting IP studies, various training workshops about patents and trademarks, and etc. have been done.
HJ/