A Comparative Study on the Non-functionality Requirement in the ‎Industrial Designs Law

The appearance and aesthetic aspects of the products can be protected as an industrial design under design law. In addition to the positive substantive requirements for protecting industrial designs, such as novelty, originality and individual character, another requirement is also provided under the title of "Non-functionality", which is described as a negative requirement in different legal systems. According to this requirement, a design that is solely dictated by functional aspects of the products and is made to solve a technical and functional problem of the products cannot be protected as an industrial design. Considering the lack of adequate research in this field on one side, and lack of clear law provisions in Iranian Law Design on another side, this article aims to answer the following questions through a comparative study in pioneer legal systems: why is the functional industrial design not to be protected? And how is the functional industrial design to be identified? And at the end, although this requirement is justified on the bases of different criteria such as the alternative solutions and causative approach the authors propuses that the main basis of this requirement is the separation of the industrial design system from the patent system, after which efficient competition is also maintained, On the other hand.