Iranian Inventors Supported by Iran Patent Office: Official

The director of Iran Patent Office, Mehdi Zaghimi, says Iranian inventors can envoy the support of the Vice-Presidency for Science and Technology Affairs to take out patent for their scientific and industrial achievements and commercialize them, which is a costly and difficult process.

Iran Patent Office is affiliated to the Vice-Presidency, according to a report by IFP.

Zaghimi added over the past two years, the Iranian industrial and scientific society has witnessed an almost 100-percent growth in the number of patents issued by leading international centres for its inventions.

In 2015, only 48 patents had been granted to Iranian inventions, he said, adding, however, that in 2016, the figure rose to 94.

“Among the services Iran Patent Office provides domestic knowledge-based companies with is offering a 90-percnt support [to them] in the process of obtaining patent protection from leading international centres. This is because the process of taking out international patent rights is quite costly and time taking. Over the past few years, Iran Patent Office has shored up more than 30 percent of the Iranian inventions in the process of getting patent rights.”

He said previously, the entire process of the patent issuance took place outside Iran and was conducted by foreign lawyers.

However, he added, currently half of the related activities are carried out inside Iran.

“In two years, the entire process will be carried out in the country.”

He added Iran Patent Office has set up a number of [invention] commercialization and intellectual property offices in Iranian universities which hold specialized workshops on the process of obtaining patent protection for inventions.

Zaghimi put the number of these offices at 41, adding they have been established with the cooperation of Iran’s Ministry of Science, Research and Technology and domestic universities.

In 2015, he said, some 160 patent applications were submitted to Iran Patent Office.

“In 2016, the figure rose to 300, of which only 30 percent are processed.”