Non-functionality Requirement of Industrial Designs in Iran's Legal System: Challenges and Solutions

Protection of an industrial design requires several substantive requirements that one of them is "Non-functional requirement". Despite the long history of examining and analyzing this requirement in other legal systems, this important issue has been neglected in Iran's legal system. Insufficient attention to the said requirement has led to a confusion in interpretation and implementation. Considering the importance of this requirement on the one hand and the lack of research in this field on the other hand, this article aims to answer the following questions: (1) how does the registration office during the examination of an industrial design application and the judicial authority in the industrial design cases face the non-functional requirement? And (2) how is the requirement to be identified from the perspective of legislation, organizational procedure of the registration office and judicial procedure? In the following by analyzing, criticizing and evaluating these procedures, it shows that although the requirement is taken into consideration by the registration office and the judicial procedure in some cases, there are incorrect perceptions and approaches regarding its concept and criteria that the main origin is lack of attention to the theoretical justifications of the non-functional requirement. Finally, suitable legislative, organizational and judicial proposals are presented based on the analysis.