Nouraei & M. Mostafavi Law Offices – 30 April 2025-Tehran-In a move to strengthen its presence in the international arena of marks and patents, the Iranian parliament has legislated the Law on the Accession of the State of the Islamic Republic of Iran to the Vienna Agreement Establishing an International Classification of the Figurative Elements of Marks and the Strasbourg Agreement Concerning the International Classification of Inventions. The Law was approved in a public session of the Islamic Consultative Assembly (parliament) on 22/12/1403 (12 March 2025) and President Massoud Pezeshkian, through Letter No. 17042 dated 06/02/1404, notified that to the Ministry of Justice for enforcement. The ministry must arrange for the publication of the Law in the Official Gazette for the public’s knowledge. In line with Article 2 of the Civil Code of Iran, the legislative enactments come into force fifteen days after publication in the gazette.
According to WIPO, the Vienna Agreement establishes a classification for marks that consist of, or contain, figurative elements. The competent offices of Contracting States must indicate in official documents and publications relating to registrations and renewals of marks the numbers of the categories, divisions and sections of the Classification to which the figurative elements of those marks belong.
As stated by WIPO, the Strasbourg Agreement Concerning the International Patent Classification establishes the International Patent Classification (IPC) which divides technology into eight sections with approximately 80,000 subdivisions. Classification is indispensable for the retrieval of patent documents in the search for “prior art”. Such retrieval is needed by patent-issuing authorities, potential inventors, research and development units and others concerned with the application or development of technology.
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