Seyed Mohammad Beheshti made the remarks addressing a meeting on Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) in Cultural Heritage.
“Intellectual property rights, legal defense, development of protection shields for what can be production of value in the country through which the new generations could enter the scene have extraordinary importance,” RICHT Public Relations Office quoted Beheshti as saying.
The special meeting on Intellectual Property Rights in Cultural Heritage was organized by the International and Legal Affairs Office of the Research Institute in collaboration with ICOM Iran.
He said: “Based on my experience in the past 40 years, I felt that we have laws to defend intellectual property in cultural areas, but we refrain from official recognition of intellectual property in the international arena.”
'We have not yet entered the global arena based on intellectual property at international level.'
He stressed: “We are more consumer rather than producer, and if we do not respect these rights we could consume easily and cheaply.”
He said: “There are many examples and evidences on how we translate and present the books without paying anything for them … if we intend to pay their legal costs the price of the books would go up much considerably.”
Raising the question that how long this trend of consumption should be in force, he said: “What does it mean to be presently a consumer? Does it mean that we are not inherently capable of producing and we can only consume? Does it mean that we believe in it?”
He stressed that in the past the Iranians produced saffron, carpets, architectural works, and tiles which, by looking at them it could be found out that all had been production of value.
In continuation, he referred to the attack of the Mongols on Kashan in 621 Hegira and the immense damage they inflicted on the city and said: “Two years after the Mongol invasion the people of Kashan made a golden sanctuary which is now being displayed at the Berlin Museum.”
Saying that being able to produce value made the people of Kashan to produce such a lasting work over a short period of time, the head of the Research Institute of Cultural Heritage and Tourism noted: “Today we refer to such a case as the creative and knowledge-based industry and in the Iranian literature as the alchemy.”
He emphasized that a country where its art has been the alchemy, understands the importance of intellectual property rights well.
Elsewhere in his remarks he compared the present day with twenty years ago and the outstanding growth of the youth, adding that a great wave is taking shape and if this capacity is put at the disposal of the youth it could be seen that what a fast movement would be developed.
He said as there is no law for the defense of the intellectual property and people are forced to register their products in foreign countries, “which means our legal system cries that we would not defend a producer who is expected to produce value.”
He underlined the importance of producing value and said: “We should not think that the intellectual property rights is on the sidelines of legal affairs but it has high importance and the existence of our land and society depends on entering in the path of producing such property and protecting it.”
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Publish Date: 23 May 2018 - 17:21
Tehran, May 23, IRNA - Iran is equipped with the art of alchemy and therefore understands well the importance of intellectual property rights, Head of the Research Institute of Cultural Heritage and Tourism (RICHT) said.