A right is only as strong as the means to enforce it. Iran’s 2024 Industrial Property Act gives holders of patents, designs, marks and trade secrets a full toolkit — civil remedies, criminal penalties, and a specialist court to hear them. This guide brings the enforcement provisions together, whichever right has been infringed.
What counts as infringement
For patents, infringement is any act that prejudices the holder’s exclusive rights, provided it takes place after the invention’s registration date; acts permitted under the exceptions do not count (Article 70). For trademarks, it is unauthorised use of the mark, or of a confusingly similar mark that harms the owner (Article 108). Each right has its own definition, but the enforcement machinery that follows is largely shared.
Civil remedies: damages, seizure and injunctions
A rights holder can recover the full damage caused by infringement, including the lost profits that amount to a loss (Article 72).
Just as important is the ability to act quickly. At any stage of civil or criminal proceedings, the objecting party can ask the court for security, for seizure of the infringing products, and for an interim injunction against their manufacture, sale, or importation (Article 73). Where the goods are at customs, customs or judicial officers enforce the order — a practical route for stopping infringing imports at the border before they reach the market. These remedies apply across the Act, extending to designs, marks and trade secrets as well as patents.
A note on process patents: proving infringement can be difficult when the process is hidden. Article 71 helps by shifting the burden — where there is cogent evidence a product was likely made by a patented process and the real process cannot be established, the defendant must prove it was not.
Criminal penalties
Infringement can be a crime as well as a civil wrong. Under Article 131, an offender must compensate the damage and forfeit the property and proceeds of the offence, and faces a fifth-degree cash fine or a fine equal to twice the damage caused, whichever is greater. The provision adds sharper edges for particular cases: infringement of moral rights carries a sixth-degree fine; a trademark offence committed in cyberspace adds a term of imprisonment; and an infringer who continues after a formal warning can be ordered to pay three times the damage.
Companies are not beyond reach. Under Article 132, a legal person that commits these offences is punished under the Islamic Penal Code, and a complainant can claim the damage from the company, which may in turn recover from the individual at fault.
Unfair competition
Beyond the registered rights, the Act tackles unfair market conduct directly. Article 129 lists six kinds of unfair competition: false statements damaging a competitor; creating a confusing resemblance to a competitor’s goods; false or misleading advertising; misleading comparative advertising; advertising that fails to distinguish original goods from lower-quality licensed goods; and price collusion aimed at eliminating competitors. This gives businesses a route to challenge dishonest competition even where no patent, mark or design has been infringed.
The specialist IP court
Enforcement now has a dedicated forum. Under Article 143, disputes arising from the Act fall to the branches of the Special Intellectual Property Judicial Complex in Tehran, supported by a dedicated prosecutor’s office for the offences under the Act. Its judges are required to have relevant legal knowledge of intellectual property. Disputes may also be referred to arbitration — unless what is in question is the validity of the rights themselves, which stays with the court.
Putting it together
The practical strength of the Act is that a rights holder can move on several fronts at once: an interim injunction and customs seizure to stop the harm immediately, a civil claim for full damages, and — where the conduct is serious — a criminal complaint. A concentrated specialist court and prosecutor’s office in Tehran make that combination more coherent than under the old law. For the rights themselves, see our companion guides on patents, utility models, industrial designs, trademarks, and trade secrets.
This is general information on the Industrial Property Act, not legal advice. For a specific matter, speak with HENGAM’s litigation 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.