Intellectual Property Rights for Magic Tricks: Studying the U.S Law and Providing a Solution in the Iranian Considering the Imamiyah Jurisprudence

Magicians entertain spectators by using some tricks. Creating such tricks sometimes requires spending a lot of time and money by magicians which makes this group expect protecting their intellectual endeavor and preventing their imitation and unauthorized exploitation. The advent of digital technology, with the ability of mass and rapid copying and dissemination of the tricks, has doubled the necessity of this protection. This paper, written through a descriptive-analytic method, has concluded that in Imamiyah jurisprudence, there is no obstacle to the legitimacy and consequently, the protection of magic tricks.  Under the Iranian and U.S laws, granting intellectual property rights in the form of copyright, patent, trademark and trade secrets to the magicians is a probable solution to protect this group, each having advantages and disadvantages. As an alternative solution, self-regulating rules of magicians' unions may provide a relative protection for this group.