Document Type : Original Article

Authors

• Saeed Habiba ¹
• Mohammad Chalabi ²

¹ Department of Civil Law , Faculty of Law and Political Science, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran

² Department of Civil Law, Faculty of Law and Political Science, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran

Abstract

Intellectual property is considered to be one of the protected assets of foreign investors in host countries in most of international investment treaties. This is while the protecting terms in such treaties include the investors intellectual properties. Meanwhile, these kinds of protections are not unlimited; as they might be affected by public interests of the host countries. Adding an exemption clause in international investment treaties is a good example for such limits. Based on the mentioned clause, the actions taken by host countries in order to protect the public interest, are not considered to be breach of the commitment. On the other hand, some host countries may consider issuing compulsory license as exemption clause most of the times. This will lead to limitations for intellectual properties of the investor. Also, the investor may consider such action from the host country as expropriation on their intellectual properties and claim for compensation.

Therefore, this article examines that according to the content of the foreign investment treaties, international conventions and domestic laws related to the intellectual property, is a foreign investor allowed to make such claim and if it is made, and how probable it is to succeed considering the possible defenses the host country makes. This is article is a with analytical-descriptive method, comes to the conclusion that the answer to the mentioned question is mainly depended on two factors. The amount of royalty paid to the inventor and (2) the wording of exemption clauses in investment treaties.

Keywords

• foreign investment treaties
• compulsory licenses
• exception clause
• expropriation
• Intellectual property