The Nature of Intellectual Rights’ Infringement in Islamic Jurisprudence and Law of Iran in Terms of Compensation; With a View on US Law

Abstract

Intellectual property rights infringement is wrong that has both civil and criminal aspects. In civil aspect it is followed by compensation and in criminal terms, it causes the imposition of punishment on the violator of the right. In the Iranian legal system, no clear nature is taken into account for this infringement and basically, studies as to it have not considered any significance for explaining the nature of the infringement. Whereas, investigating and explaining the nature of the infringement has important implications. Intellectual property rights infringement may be considered as loss the consequence of which is imposing an obligation to prove the damage caused for compensation. In the case of infringement of intellectual right, its proof is sometimes impossible and as a result the intellectual property right holder is deprived of compensation. Invoking the jurisprudential and legal rules of causation and unjust enrichment in these cases, for the same reason, not only does not provide a basis for the right to compensation, but also doubles the difficulty for the holder of the right to impose a guilty plea in the case of invoking the causation. Intellectual property infringement in Iran appears to be a mere harmful act and, therefore, infringement will not necessarily lead to compensation. This contradicts the motivational role of the intellectual property system. While, in the US legal system, by foreseeing the minimum assumed legal damages, ownability and the motivational role of these rights are confirmed in practice.