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The recognition of patentability of biotechnological inventions by the the industrial countries’ patent offices in the last two decades and increasingly growth of the number of patents in this field have caused considerable ethical challenges and controversies, apart from technical difficulties. Some challenges stem from critical views about biotechnology and the environmental effects of genetic manipulations of living organisms and some critics are related to the monopolistic profits of patent holders and limitation of third parties access to the biotechnologies and intensification of trade attitude to the intellectual property rights. However some challenges are especially related to the implications of biotechnological patents, such as commodification of life in general and human genes and his body parts specifically, violation of human dignity and biopiracy and unfair exploitation of the third world genetic resources and traditional knowledge by the patent holders from industrial countries. After reviewig related legal developments and moral considerations in the patent laws and legislations, we will study the approaches of patent offices through the case studies of some famous controversial patents. The morality of inventions has not been considered in patent laws of some countries, such as U.S., but many patent laws, including European Patent Convention, TRIPs agreement and EU Directive on the legal protection of biotechnological inventions, the inventions which are contrary to the morality are excluded from patentable subject matter. However regarding the ambiguous concept of morality and economic benefits of biotechnological invitations and trade competitions in this field, the patent offices taking a utilitarian approach, narrowly interpret such provisions and rarely care the moral objections to the confered patents.

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This paper aims to study the relationship between intellectual property and patent protection and economic growth in Iran using Auto Regressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) technique during 1979 – 2010. This model is based on economic growth models in 1990s. The number of patents is used to measure the impact of patents on economic growth. Moreover, we investigate the casual relationships among economic growth, degree of economic openness, foreign direct investment, information and communication technology (ICT) and human development. The results indicate that patent protection has a positive and significant impact on economic growth. Furthermore, the casual relationships from degree of economic openness, foreign direct investment, ICT and human development to economic growth are positively significant. Based on numerical results, one-unit increases in ICT, HDI, patents, government expenditure and oil revenues lead to 0.10, 0.12, 0.10, 0.39 and 0.21 percent increase in economic growth respectively. Hence, we conclude that the higher intellectual property and patent protection results in high economic growth.

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     Since the majority of damages due to infringement of patent are lost profits, it is essential to govern its compensation. The US legal system has admitted the owner lost profits and reasonable royalty as two criteria for determining compensation. According to 4-staged Panduit’s way, in case of existence of demand in the market, absence of substitute in the market, patentee's ability to meet demand and proving profit margin, the 1^st criterion is exploited. According to lost profits, only those profits can be compensated whose causes are available and the obstacle is absent. In case that even one of the Panduit’s requirements is not met or, at the request of the patentee, the amount of compensation is determined in compliance with the reasonable royalty. In Iranian law, separation of remediable and irremediable profits is treated like that of the USA, and only part of the future profits is remediable according to the principle of lost profits. In other words, patent profits fall into 3 categories as existing, pseudo-existing and probable. The 2^nd category whose cause is available and the obstacle is absent, is remediable like the 1^st category, as it can be commonly considered pseudo- existing, whereas the 3^rd category is irreparable due to the absence of causes or presence of obstacle.      

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        Considering the widespread and rapid developments in the field of Internet services, the paper registration of industrial property seems time consuming, expensive and exotic.  National, regional and international intellectual property offices, in line with the regulations, with understanding of these realities have paved the way for electronic registration of industrial property subjects such as patents, trademarks and industrial designs. In the executive regulations of the Law of Patents, industrial designs and trademarks of Iran, the electronic registration has been provided, but the Industrial Property Office has not yet done any actions in this regard. The present article, through explaining the concept, scope, status and benefits of electronic registration as well as the national and international experiences, seeks to acquaint our legal community and Industrial Property Office with electronic registration. It also suggests that advances in information technology should be used to develop electronic services, and that by using the technical services, assistance and advice of international organizations, especially world intellectual property organization, fundamental and serious steps can be taken in the field of electronic registration.      

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        Assessment of inventive step is one of the difficult and challengeable steps of registering a subject in the patent offices. For the establishment of this condition, different tests are used. In America, Europe and Japan patent offices, it is dividable into main and secondary criteria. Studies indicate that assessments in America compared with Europe, and especially Japan, are of lower level, because in Europe and Japan, assessment of inventive step is done in subtle form. In Iran, unlike the abave patent offices, assessment is not performed intensively in patent office and by experts; rather, it is performed via inquiry from the experts of collegiate institutes and science and technology parks. However, due to lack of skilled experted fully aware of the literature of patent, assessment of inventive step is not performed in subtle form, indicating the alloy of oneness of novelty and inventive step. The present paper tries to recognized the assessments tests of inventive step requirement, and then study Iran’s situation in this respect.                    
 

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Granting of intellectual property rights on biological materials could be very contentious issue from cultural, legal, ethical and religious points of view. This could be even more complicated, once it acquires an international dimension. The Agreement on Trade Related Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPs) is the latest international arrangement under which, a complex structure for international protection of intellectual property rights has been created. However, while it embodies some provisions of pervious international documents on intellectual property rights, it reflects a unique and unprecedented scheme of protection of intellectual property rights, which also highlights a tension between developed and developing countries especially over the patentability of biological inventions. The provisions of TRIPs make it difficult for developing countries to deny such protection. However, it is possible for them to limit the scope of such protection by relying on exceptions provided by TRIPs and also by relying on the distinction between invention and discovery. These strategies would allow developing countries to exercise some discretion in defining the scope of patentable biotechnologies.

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    Although the developing countries have recognized the principle of patent protection and bound the related norms but they followed the public policy approach and accepted these norms in the light of public interest and developmental needs. So they always contemplate the flexibilities of patent rights but the question is that what mechanisms and policies they should apply whilst being bound over to international instrument has been accessed to the mentioned aims. For the sake of this paper, the means of exception is the exceptions and limitations provided in the articles 15 and 17 of the registration of patent, trade mark and industrial design Act. In this article, after discussing the concepts of the mechanism and tools provided in the mentioned articles, an attempt is also made to illustrate the efficiency of the mentionsed tools. However, the pre-register exception, as has been provided in the article 4, is another topic, which should be considered separately. In the meanwile, just some general norms and standards in the evaluation of the legitimacy of the following limitation with special reference to experimental use and personal use of patent will be illustrated and some other mechanisms in this area such as exhaustion of rights and compulsory licenses require another contemplation.                                
 

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            Amendment and supplement of acts show dynamism of the legal system. Patent Protection Act 1386 (2007) opened new landscapes toward the protection of industrial property. Although many positive steps have been taken in its codification, the law suffers from some disadvantages to which ignorance will impair scientific development of the country. Among the most important defects is lack of production of small inventions. In this article, by describing these defects, an entity has been suggested as a supplement system. In addition to covering small inventions, the system has undeniable advantages, which will help to supplement and eliminate imperfections of the current system                  
*Corresponding Author`s E-mail: habiba@ut.ac.ir

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            intellectual property is the right, which has the economic value of transaction; however here the subject matter is not any definite material object. Iran has been poorly developed in intellectual property so that it lags behind others about one or two decades in this regard. According to the third clause of Article 2 of the Act concerning objectives and duties of Ministry of Science about evaluation and approval of inventions, and also Article 45 of the Act concerning the Fourth Program of Development regarding designing the comprehensive system of intellectual property by Ministry of Science, this system has important duties beyond this sector in this domain. In this research, the tenfold roles of higher education in the intellectual property system are formulated, and the respondents’ viewpoints about the degree of importance of each are compiled. Beside these efforts, the practical experiences of 26 prestigious universities in the world the area of intellectual property with emphasis on the subject of invention are aggregated. At last, a collection of strategic suggestions to promote the role of Iranian higher education in intellectual property is presented.            
 * Corresponding Author’s E-mail: salehi514@gmail.com

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 The priority right is a right that preserves the first applicant’s right for a patent in one of the member countries of the convention, treaty or agreement for a limited period in another country or its member states. The priority right, particular priority right and leniency deadline are the same in nature. The priority right may be under multilateral and bilateral conventions or considered as national priority right. The principle is that this right cannot be rejected, and according to the principle of independence of the patent certificate, patent invalidity does not lead to the rejection of the priority right. The priority right plays an important role in supporting the patent applicant, including, the possibility of patent in the member country of Convention, Treaty and Agreement; time criteria for determining the novelty and invention step of the claimed invention; time criteria for the best method in implementation of invention; time criteria for the discloser and publication of invention; and saving money and creating opportunities for the patent in a different country are thought out. This right creates for the inventors an importance effect, i.e. “peace of mind in the protection of intellectual works”.              
*. Corresponding Author’s  E-mail: sadegh_m@modares.ac.ir

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Software is defined a set of statements or instructions to be used directly or indirectly in a computer in order to achieve a specified objective. Softwares are derived from their creators’ thoughts and the most efficient way is through the intellectual property rights.
First a software is created in written form, the most popular way of supporting it can be through copyright protection. The European Directives expressly recognize software programs as a literary work. But with reference to the provisions of TRIPs agreement and USA and UK patent laws, they could be registered as a patent too. Softwares are likely the strong economic means, which most of the vital projects of the country are fulfiled by them. Thus there must be the possibility for them that, after meeting several criteria, be registered as an invention. For this reason, the European patent office, which previously used to decline software patent offers, after changing its policies, granted patent to the effective technical softwares.  By protecting the software as an invention, the inventor has the exclusive right to make use and exclusive offer of his/her invention. The idea of software can be protected only under patent systems, which can be assumed as a difference between patentable software and software as a literary work.
In accordance with Iran’s  law, the software, which includes the prescribed conditions in patent laws, will be known as an invention. This procedure is partially in accordance with the USA and Uk patent laws.

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Patent troll is a non-practicing entity in domain of inventions which obtain patent ownership without any intention of using it. Patent trolls buy their favored invention and waiting for its infringement from other companies. After infringement and commercializing of the patent, in order to transfer license and its royalty, patent trolls threat companies with litigation. These entities initially were formed and have their central core in United States due to the traits of American system of inventions. Although some lawyers believe that trolls are useful by increasing inventors' motivation and providing capital for them, they have also some negative effects. These drawbacks force legislators and judicial system to pass new legislations and to introduce new ways of redress in related disputes, in order to decreasing or limiting patent trolls activities.
In this paper, the concept of patent trolls is defined and explained and its positive and negative effects are illustrated.

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Patent troll is a non-practicing entity in the domain of inventions, which obtains patent ownership without any intention of using it. Patent trolls buy their favored invention and waits for its infringement from other companies. After infringement and commercializing of the patent, in order to transfer the license and its royalty, the patent trolls threat companies with litigation. These entities initially were formed and have their central core in the United States due to the traits of the American system of inventions. Although some lawyers believe that trolls are useful by increasing inventors' motivation and providing capital for them, they have also some negative effects. These drawbacks force the legislators and judicial systems to pass new legislations and introduce new ways of redress in the related disputes in order to decreasing or limiting the patent trolls’ activities.In this paper, the concept of patent trolls is defined and explained, and its positive and negative effects are illustrated.

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Due to the increasing growth of the software industry and its financial value, the issue of using software as collateral has been taken into consideration by the laws of the countries for financing. Security interest in software as a financing instrument in the UNCITRAL Legislative Guide on Secured Transactions (Supplement on Security Rights in Intellectual Property) and Article 9 of the US Uniform Commercial Code is adopted. However, effectiveness against third parties, is subject to registration. if registered, must be filed in the Federal Copyright Office, otherwise the security right must be filed in the secretory State’s Office. In the case of invented software, the current procedure is the dual registration of security interest in the secretory State’s Office and the Federal Patent and Trademark Office.
In Iranian law, collateralization of software has been questioned Because of the intangible nature of it. Some regulations such as Securities Collateral Directive, dated 6/19/2010, securities and shares considered as tangible asset and collateralization of them has been possible. Also, software Proprietary Bonds are securities under the Directive of deposition and transaction of intellectual property bonds. Thus, these securities, like all other securities, are objective, and it is possible to collateral them with physical delivery or prediction of a security right registration system.
 

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In Iran, there is no particular statute for registration of military inventions while a unique decree has been approved related to the matter that regarding its substance, could not legislate about the matter while ignoring the law of invention registing.
In this research, for giving a resolution and recognizing military powers experiences concerning the matter, through referring to patent and national defense regulations of  two countries being studied by the research, we study the registration process of military inventions and the way by which national defense rights are imposed upon economic and moral rights of the owner.
In most countries, due to the importance of the military and invention importance, armament competition, while respecting secrecy rules, to guarantee mentioned matters, the filing process is abandoned as well as granting of the patent to the owner. Though, in Iran, like Turkey and China, the military invention is registered and the patent is granted as well; though, the process of registration is confidential.
In the entire of us, through issuance of the orders such as secrecy or invention abandonment, the owner is excluded from the rights such as exploitation, manufacture and divulgation. In the case of any violation against state's defense law, the infringer will face severe criminal, civil, security measures and administrative sanctions.
Regardless of those limitations, instead, the states, to conserve creativeness in inventor and promote military construction, have conferred some rights to the owner such as; mandatory use, compensation of suspension of use.
It's recommended that, by special legislation, every matter pertaining to national defense rights, the institute responsible for registration, review manner and filing procedure, limitations and punishment and finally compensation methods be established.
 

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The patent claims as an important legal part of the patent certificate are the most cited and the most challenging part of the patent certificate in patent infringement lawsuits. The evaluation of the jurisprudence of various countries proves that despite the significant impact that this part of the patent certificate has on the fate of infringement lawsuits, due to the arbitrary constructions, it has lost its pioneering role and the judgements are clearly incoherent. This article, in addition examining the judicial procedure of American courts and identifying the seven principles cited by judges, shows the necessity and importance of uniform, methodical and predictable construction by parties. Also, while refining and evaluating these principles in Iran's patent law, this research aims to provide clear guidance for Iranian judges when interpreting claims in settling disputes of infringement lawsuits. Nevertheless, the authors of this article, while acknowledging the special nature of the strategic findings of the judges of the American federal courts, use the aforementioned principles only for face these concepts, to explain the necessity of systematizing claims construction with the aim of preventing occurrence of conflicting opinions when interpreting claims in Infringement claims are suggested. Nevertheless, the authors of this article, while acknowledging the special nature of the strategic findings of the judges of the American courts, use the aforementioned principles only to face these concepts, to explain the necessity of systematizing the interpretation of claims with the aim of preventing the occurrence of conflicting opinions when interpreting claims are suggested.