WIPO authority lauds Iran’s gains in intellectual property

1394/02/18-10:32

The state of intellectual property in Iran has been reviewed in a panel discussion held Thursday on the sidelines of the 28^th Tehran International Book Fair (TIBF) in a section of the fairground called House of Men of Letters.

The debate was joined by Deputy Director General of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), Anne Leer, Director General of Legal and Intellectual Property Affairs in the Iranian Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance, Ladan Heidari, and Director of Ghazal publication, Ali Reza Rabbani.

In the meantime, Rabbani regretted that many foreign works were published or translated in Iran without prior authorization from original authors, eventually denting the trust and motivation of domestic Iranian publishers while causing their foreign peers to loss any motivation for applying for Iranian works’ publishing rights.

The publishing activist noted that the problematic situation has stopped Persian works from receiving a due welcome in the world.

For her part, Leer said the WIPO, counting 188 member countries, has started to set down special regulations in intellectual property and industrial property.

The WIPO authority lauded the Islamic Republic of Iran for being on the vanguard of intellectual property law.

Leer said the Berne Convention embodies the basics of copyright debate, adding of 188 signatories to WIPO, 168 member countries have already acceded to the Convention that stipulates regulations to protect authors.

The WIPO authority noted that authors of member countries may enjoy the convention’s legal support as soon as they publish their works without having any need to enroll their names under the convention.

Leer expressed regret that Iranian authors and publishers suffer damages as their works are copied overseas without authorization and that Iranian artists have to travel abroad in order to win legal support for their works.,

The director general cited WIPO reports that member countries earn up to 16 percent of their economic income through the cultural sector, adding that Iran would rather put in place the necessary legal frameworks to protect Iranian artists and pave the ground for cultural creativity.

The WIPO deputy director general also urged Iran to finalize its accession to Morocco Treaty that allows the visually impaired to have access to special works produced for the group worldwide.

Next, Ladan Heidari cited lack of knowledge about available domestic regulations and improper publication contracts as two major intellectual property problems facing the activists in the field.

In another regard, the ministerial authority said a bill stipulating Iran’s accession to the Berne Convention was long drawn up by the ministry however the government had demanded the ministry to make more studies to remove the concerns of some activists in the field.

Heidari expressed hope the bill would be approved soon.