A product’s appearance can be as commercially valuable as its function. Iran’s 2024 Industrial Property Act protects that appearance through industrial design registration. This guide explains what a design right covers, what falls outside it, how registration works, and how long protection lasts.
What an industrial design is
Under Article 82, an industrial design is any composition of lines or colours, or any three-dimensional shape, that gives a special outward, visual appearance to an industrial product or a product of handicraft. The right is about how a product looks — its form, pattern, or ornamentation — not how it works.
That distinction is decisive. A design that has merely a technical function and gives no new appearance is not protectable as a design; that territory belongs to patents or utility models instead.
What cannot be registered
Article 83 lists what falls outside design protection: designs containing official state symbols; methods and principles of design; designs contrary to sharia, public order or morals; a mere change in the dimensions of existing goods; designs that conflict with another’s registered trademark; purely functional designs with no new appearance; and the component (spare) parts of composite designs.
The two conditions: new and original
To be registrable, a design must be both new and original (Article 84). “New” means it has not been disclosed to the public anywhere in the world before the filing or priority date. “Original” means it was created independently by the designer and is not a copy or imitation of an existing design. The two conditions work together: independent creation is not enough if the design was already public, and novelty is not enough if it merely copies another.
Filing and publication
An applicant can file several designs in one application where they belong to the same class, or form one set used together, on payment of a separate fee (Article 87). Examination against the statutory conditions is completed within four months, and the applicant then has one month to respond to the examiner’s report.
A useful feature for products not yet launched: publication can be deferred. Under Article 90, the applicant may ask that the application not be published for up to twelve months from the filing date — allowing a design to be protected while kept out of public view until launch. Once published, third parties have two months to oppose (Article 91).
Term and rights
An industrial design lasts five years from the filing date, renewable for two further five-year periods — a maximum of fifteen years of protection (Article 92).
During that time, the owner has the exclusive right to manufacture, sell, and import items bearing the design (Article 93). The owner may sue anyone who does these for commercial purposes without consent — or who commits an act that would customarily lead to a future infringement — before the competent court.
Design, patent, or trademark?
Because appearance, function, and brand often overlap in a single product, it is worth being deliberate about which right to use. A design protects appearance; a patent or utility model protects a technical solution; a trademark protects the sign that identifies the source. A distinctive product shape might, in principle, touch more than one — but the Act keeps the categories separate, and a design that is really doing a trademark’s or a patent’s job will be refused. Choosing the right instrument at the outset avoids a registration that cannot hold.
For the neighbouring rights, see our companion guides on patents, utility models, and trademarks in Iran.
This is general information on the Industrial Property Act, not legal advice. For a specific matter, speak with HENGAM’s team.
Sadegh Shamshiri
Sadegh leads on legal strategy and represents high-profile clients in IP litigation and enforcement — across trademarks, patents, designs, copyright, and domain names, including complex multi-jurisdictional disputes.