What a Patent Is Not

A patent application consists of the description, claims, drawings and abstract submitted together with the application petition. After a duly prepared patent application has been submitted to the Turkish Patent and Trademark Office (TÜRKPATENT), the Office subjects it to a formal examination. If the examination shows that the application has no deficiencies with respect to the formal requirements, or once any such deficiencies have been remedied or completed, the application becomes ready for search.

A request for a search of the state of the art must be filed with the Office within 15 months of the filing date or, if a priority right has been claimed, of the priority date. The search is carried out by the European Patent Office and the Danish, Swedish and Russian patent offices, and partly by TÜRKPATENT.

Once eighteen months have elapsed from the filing date or, if a priority right has been claimed, from the priority date, the Office publishes the application in the Official Patent Bulletin for 6 months.

Decree-Law No. 551 provides two systems for granting patents: the system of granting patents without examination and the system of granting patents with examination.

In the system without examination, a patent is granted without examination after the search report has been published and the period set for the applicant to submit counter-arguments on the report has expired, without taking into account any observations of third parties on the search report.

In the system with examination, after the search report the invention is further examined against the criteria of whether it is new, whether it involves an inventive step over the state of the art and whether it is industrially applicable, and patents are granted only to inventions that meet these criteria.

The term of a patent granted without examination is 7 years, and that of a patent granted with examination is 20 years.

What should be done before filing a patent application?

Before filing a patent application, the applicant is advised to apply to TÜRKPATENT for a patent search on the technology that is the subject of the invention.

A search of the state of the art enables the inventor to compare the invention with existing patents and to see the similarities and differences.

The applicant gains a general idea of whether the invention is new. This reduces the likelihood that a patent application filed with knowledge of the existing technology will be refused.

How long does it take to obtain a patent? Could you tell us about the cost of obtaining a patent?

A national patent application takes more than 2 years to conclude. The cost of a national patent application is approximately YTL 4,500–5,000. Official fees and attorney fees each account for roughly half of this amount.

What criteria must an invention meet to be protected by a utility model? What is the difference between a patent and a utility model? How many years of protection do patents and utility models provide?

An invention must have two qualities to be protected by a utility model: it must be new and it must be industrially applicable.
Unlike a patent, a utility model does not require an inventive step over the state of the art.
The terms of protection are different.
Because there are no search and examination procedures, obtaining a utility model certificate is more advantageous than obtaining a patent in terms of both time and cost.
A patent granted with examination is protected for 20 years, a patent granted without examination for 7 years and a utility model certificate for 10 years.

Can a patent registered in Türkiye be valid worldwide? Why? What must be done to obtain a patent that is valid worldwide?

Each country has its own patent office and its own patent laws. Unfortunately, there is no system that provides for registration worldwide. Therefore, a separate application must be filed for each country in which registration is sought.

The Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) and the European Patent Convention offer applicants major savings in time and cost for international registration in their member countries.

What rights does patent or utility model registration give the patent owner? What protection does a patent certificate provide, and to what extent?

The patent owner has the right to prevent third parties from doing the following without permission:
Producing, selling, using or importing the patented product, or possessing it for these purposes for any reason other than personal need.
Using a patented process; third parties offering others the use of a process patent whose use they know or should know is prohibited; offering for sale, using or importing products obtained directly by the patented process, or possessing them for these purposes for any reason other than personal need.

What can be done in the case of imitation?

In the event of infringement of patent rights, heavy fines ranging from six hundred million to one billion lira or imprisonment of 2–4 years may be imposed, as well as closure of the business premises and a ban from trade. An action for damages can also be brought.

As a patent consultancy firm, could you tell us about your services? How many companies or individuals approach you for patent consultancy each year?

Bilim Patent Danışmanlık Hizmetleri began its commercial activities in 2001. Both partners of the firm are lawyers. Since 1992, the partners have provided legal counsel and attorney services at their own law firm. Bilim Patent is therefore built on the knowledge, expertise and experience of a law firm with 15 years of practice.

Bilim Patent provides monitoring and legal consultancy services in the field of intellectual and industrial property rights. The firm's main areas of activity can be summarized as trademark registration, industrial design registration, utility model and patent registration, and consultancy on quality management systems.

Bilim Patent provides consultancy services to an average of 2,000 clients a year.

What picture emerges when we look at the distribution of patent applications in Türkiye over the years?

Statistical data for the last 12 years show that domestic patent applications have been on a steady upward trend. The number of domestic patent applications, which was 170 in 1995, reached 935 in 2005 and 1,838 in 2007.

When we look at patent applications in Türkiye by sector, which sectors stand out?

In the sectoral distribution of patent data according to the NACE classification, the pharmaceuticals, medicinal chemicals, household appliance manufacturing and industrial machinery manufacturing sectors lead in patent applications.

Source: Referans newspaper