Abstract

Trade marks have basically come into view following the boom in commercial transactions and competition among enterprises and companies. It is claimed that domestic and foreign protections of the trademarks play significant roles in the economic improvement and development of countries. However, research has shown that in Iran, there are some shortcomings in the legal protection of trademarks. The obstacles to legal protection of trade marks involve: lack of specialized courts on trade marks, little knowledge of judges, absence of specialized journals and the weakness of the institutions supporting consumers’ rights. Faced with large amounts of domestic products and increased competition among enterprises and companies on the internal and international level show the necessity of the legal protection of trade marks. With respect to the importance of trade marks in today’s industrial world, this article tries to consider two legal bases of trademark protection. Laws related to trademarks have two main bases. The first basis is protection of the trademark owner and the second is protection of the consumer affected by trademarks. Thus, legal concepts of right of priority, unfair competition, bad faith, well-known marks and so on are included in these two bases. In addition, a legal case including an inferior court’s and appeal court’s verdict are analyzed based on the bases mentioned above.