Patent registration in Turkey. Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with a small portion on the Balkan Peninsula in Southeast Europe. Turkey is a regional power and a newly industrialized country, with a geopolitically strategic location. Its economy, which is classified among the emerging and growth-leading economies, is the twentieth-largest in the world by nominal GDP, and the eleventh-largest by PPP. It is a charter member of the United Nations, an early member of NATO, the IMF, and the World Bank, and a founding member of the OECD, OSCE, BSEC, OIC, and G20. Accordingly, many businesses want to enter this market and one of the most important preparations a business needs to take before expanding to this country is to learn the procedure of patent registration in Turkey.
Patent in Turkey
According to Turkey law, a patent in this country is a grant of a property right given by the Government to an inventor. With a patent, the inventor, or the patentee will have the right to exclude others from making, using, offering for sale, selling the invention in a country, or importing the invention into a country, along with other rights to protect their best interests.
To be patentable in Turkey, an invention must satisfy the requirement of new, inventive, and industrially applicability.
In addition, an invention that is patentable can also be an improvement on existing items or methods.
The novelty grace period in Turkey is 12 months from the filing date.
On the other hand, the subjects that are unpatentable in Turkey are:
- Discoveries, laws of nature, and mathematical methods;
- Aesthetic designs;
- Systems, rules, and methods for the performance of mental labor, games or management, computer programs;
- Presentation of data and abstract ideas.
Necessary documents for patent registration in Turkey
The necessary documents for patent registration in Turkey include:
- The request to grant a patent (patent application);
- Detailed information on the applicant(s) including the applicant’s names, addresses, etc.;
- A description of the invention;
- A signed and stamped power of attorney by the applicant(s);
- A copy of the amendments (if any);
- Priority documents (if any).
- Other required documents.
The official language of the Turkish patent application is Turkish. The applicant may file in other languages, but a translation of necessary documents into Turkish must be filed to the Turkey IP Office within 2 months from the filing date.
The procedure for patent registration in Turkey
To obtain a patent in Turkey, the applicant needs to file their patent application to the IP Office of Turkey.
The examiners will conduct examinations to check if the application complies with the requirements of the law and whether the subject matter of the application is registrable or not.
Within 12 months, i.e. 1 year from the filing date, the applicant needs to file a request for a novelty search of the invention.
When the result of such a request has been issued, the applicant needs to file an additional request for substantive examination within 3 months from the receiving date of the search report.
If there are no errors in the examinations, the applicant will be granted a patent that has a 20 years validity period.
It should be noted that there are different procedures regarding patent registration in Turkey before or after January 10, 2017.
In addition to the national filing method, an applicant can also choose to file through the PCT to obtain patent protection in Turkey.
You can find the list of IP Firms in Turkey here.