Instructing Iranian IP counsel: sanctions, power of attorney & payment

What the general licence authorises

The baseline Iran prohibition (§ 560.204) bars supplying goods, technology, or services to Iran by US persons. Section 560.509 stands as a standing exception to that rule, authorising four categories of IP activity:

• Filing and prosecuting any application for a patent, trademark, copyright, or other form of IP protection.
• Receiving the granted patent, trademark, copyright, or other protection.
• Renewing or maintaining that protection.
• Filing and prosecuting opposition or infringement proceedings, or entering a defence to such proceedings.

Together these cover the entire registration-and-maintenance lifecycle, plus administrative opposition and infringement actions — on both the offensive and defensive sides. Section 560.509(b) then authorises payment of the “reasonable and customary” fees due to attorneys or representatives in Iran, and to the Iranian IP office. The one carve-out within the carve-out: payment may not be made from a blocked account.

The three hard limits

The licence is broad, but it has firm edges. Three conditions gate every engagement:

When OFAC reaches a foreign company

OFAC’s primary Iran prohibitions bind US persons — US citizens and residents anywhere, anyone in the United States, US-incorporated entities and their branches, and, for Iran, foreign entities owned or controlled by a US person. A genuinely non-US company with no US nexus is generally outside OFAC’s primary jurisdiction and does not need § 560.509 at all; its home-jurisdiction rules govern.

But the reach switches on the moment the matter touches the United States — and the most common trigger is not a person, it is a payment. A US-dollar payment that clears through a US correspondent bank pulls the whole transaction into US jurisdiction, even between two non-US parties. Whenever dollars or US persons are in the chain, treat § 560.509 as your compliance anchor.

Power of attorney & legalisation

Foreign holders cannot act before the Iranian IP office directly; the work is filed through a local agent under a power of attorney. We send you the template and the step-by-step legalisation route, and this runs in parallel so it never delays a filing or response deadline.

Paying us from abroad

Payment from abroad is workable and routine. Fees stay within the “reasonable and customary” range the licence authorises, and your estimate itemises official fees, translation and legalisation, and our professional fee before you instruct us. Because a US-dollar payment clears through the US financial system and brings the transaction into OFAC’s jurisdiction, many parties prefer a compliant non-dollar channel; we set out the mechanics when we send the power of attorney.

What the licence does not clearly cover

The four authorised categories secure, maintain, and defend the right. They do not clearly extend to full civil litigation and judgment enforcement in the Iranian courts beyond the enumerated opposition and infringement proceedings, to assignments or licensing deals with revenue flows beyond ordinary fees, or to any dealing in which a blocked person may hold an interest. The prudent reading is that anything beyond the four categories requires separate analysis, and possibly a specific OFAC licence.