Jurisprudential and Legal Foundations of Patent Rights in View of Imam Khomeini

Abstract

Protecting patent rights as principal example of industrial property rights and granting material and spiritual rights to the owner of the invention papers and the history of legislation of the issue in 1921, before ratification of such laws as Civil Code and Trade Law, indicate legal protection of patent rights. However, despite enactment of various domestic laws as well as many international conventions such as Paris Convention for Protection of Industrial Property (1883) and Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) with Islamic Republic of Iran joining some of these conventions, jurisprudential and legal foundations of this right in terms of lack of history of the issue in Islamic Law, as well as novelty of this branch of law – that is among the newly emerged issues according to some jurists – have created different challenges and viewpoints which are sometimes contradictory. This paper first reviews opinions for and against this branch of law, and while readdressing Imam Khomeini’s opinion concerning the subject, analyzes some legal foundations of the issue.

Keywords

• patent rights
• industrial property
• intellectual property rights
• inventor
• paris convention
• trips agreement