The Iranian patent reform

The new “Patent, Industrial Designs, Trademarks Law” ratified nearly 80 years after the first Iranian patent law can be considered as a serious reform for the Iranian Intellectual Property system. The key features of the new law, with respect to patenting, that are different from those of the previous one and are intended to make it more compatible with the international norms, including the “Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS)” agreement, are briefly introduced and discussed in this paper to give the reader an overview of the status of the changes in the Iranian IP law. An earlier article in this journal, by Rezapour et al. [Rezapour Morteza, Bagheri Seyed Kamran, Rashtchi Maryam, Bakhtiari Mohammad Reza. The Iranian patenting system: an introduction. World Patent Information;2007:29 250–4], described the evolution of the Iranian patent system, covering previous laws, developing policies and the accessibility of Iranian patent information.