Protection of Business Methods in Comparative Law (A study on the approach of American, Indian, Japanese, Imamia Jurisprudence and Iranian Legal Systems and the TRIPS Agreement)

Nowadays, business methods are among the most important assets of a company, protectable as an intellectual property right. Different legal systems have, always, taken different approaches in this regard. Although trade secrets are the most traditional form to protect business methods, the companie's willingness to patent inventions in this field has so increased that the significance and impact of recognizing these methods as inventions has become a controversial issue worldwide. This paper, through a descriptive-analytic method, has studied the possibility of business methods protection in deferent legal systems and concluded that today, countries such as the United States, India and Japan, have, despite their previous practice, showed much tendency towards protection of business methods as inventions; the position of TRIPS in granting patent rights to inventions including inventive steps and industrial applicability is also favorable to business methods protection. However, in Iran, business methods have, practically, been excluded from the scope of protection. Therefore, considering the deep foundations of Imamia jurisprudence in protecting people's material and immaterial rights, it is necessary for the Iranian legislator to add an article to the Iranian Act on the Registration of Inventions, Industrial designs and Trademarks to protect business methods or remove its exclusion in the Act, at least, with regard to applicable electronic commerce methods. Finally, if for any reason, business methods are not protectable in the form of trade secrets or patents, recourse can be made to other forms of protection such as utility models.