Recording IP assignments licences

A Simple Guide to Recording IP Assignments and Licenses in Turkey

IP ,

So you’ve acquired intellectual property rights in Turkey or want to license them to someone else? Great! Now you need to make it official with the Turkish Patent and Trademark Office (TÜRKPATENT). This guide will walk you through the process of recording assignments and licenses.

Why Should You Record Your Assignment or License?

Though not legally required, recording your IP transfers with TÜRKPATENT is strongly recommended because:

  • It officially recognizes your new ownership or rights
  • You’ll need it for future actions like renewals or enforcing your rights
  • It prevents potential disputes down the road

What Can You Record?

You can record various IP changes with TÜRKPATENT:

  • Assignments: Complete transfers of ownership
  • Licenses: Both exclusive and non-exclusive agreements
  • Other changes: Mergers, court decisions, inheritance, etc.

This applies to all main types of IP rights in Turkey:

  • Patents
  • Utility models
  • Trademarks
  • Industrial designs

Recording Process: A Step-by-Step Guide

Step 1: Get Your Documents Ready

For Assignments:

  • An assignment deed signed by both parties
    • Must be notarized
    • If signedoutsideTurkey, it needs an apostilleorlegalization
    • Must include consideration or a transfer fee declared in the request form
  • Power of Attorney for your Turkish representative (no notarization needed)

Important Note on Partial Transfers:

  • For trademarks: You can transfer all or just part of the goods/services. If partial, the assignment agreement must specify which goods/services are being transferred along with their class numbers.
  • For designs: All or partial transfer of multiple designs is possible. For partial transfers, the design sequence numbers of the transferred designs must be specified in the assignment agreement.

For Licenses:

  • A license agreement or declaration signed by both parties
    • Can be a simplified version focusing on the essential terms
  • Power of Attorney for your Turkish representative

Remember: All non-Turkish documentsneedTurkishtranslationsby a sworntranslator.

Step 2: Find a Local Representative

If you’re based outside Turkey, you must work with a Turkish patent or trademark attorney. They’ll handle everything through the EPATS online system and communicate with TÜRKPATENT on your behalf.

Step 3: Submit Your Application

Your Turkish attorney will:

  • Upload all necessary documents to the system
  • Pay the required fees
  • Monitor your application throughout the process

No need to mail physical copies unless specifically requested.

Step 4: Wait for Completion

With all documents in order, TÜRKPATENT typically completes the recordal within 2-4 weeks. If anything’s missing or unclear, they’ll issue a notice, and your attorney will address it.

What About Fees?

  • Officialfees:Depends on thetype of IP and recordal
  • Attorney fees: Vary by service provider

Final Thoughts

Recording your IP assignments and licenses in Turkey is straightforward when you have the right documents and local representation. While not mandatory, it’s a smart investment to protect your rights and prevent future complications. Need help with a recordal or want to ensure your documents meet Turkish requirements? We’re here to help—just reach out to our team at VALITRA for assistance.

spc turkey

What Are SPCs, and Does Turkey Have Them?

PATENT , ,

If you work with pharmaceutical patents, you’ve probably come across the term
SPC—Supplementary Protection Certificate. It’s one of those acronyms that pops up
regularly in discussions about extending patent life for drugs, especially in Europe. But how
do different jurisdictions approach patent term extensions, and more importantly, does
Turkey have something similar? Let’s break it down.

Why Is Patent Extension Needed in Pharma?
Patents typically last 20 years from the filing date. However, in the pharmaceutical industry,
a good chunk of that time is eaten up by regulatory approval processes. Between clinical
trials and market authorization, it can take 10–15 years for a drug to actually reach patients.
That leaves very little time for innovators to enjoy the benefits of market exclusivity before
generics step in.
This is where systems like SPCs come into play. They help restore part of the lost time by
offering a limited extension of protection for approved medicinal (or plant protection)
products.

How Different Jurisdictions Solve This Problem
European Union:
The EU introduced SPCs in 1992 (Regulation (EEC) No 1768/92, now replaced by Regulation
(EC) No 469/2009). An SPC can extend the protection of a patented active ingredient by up
to five years, with the possibility of a six-month extension for pediatric studies. SPCs are not
automatic—you need to apply for them within a strict timeframe after the first marketing
authorization in the EU or an EEA member state.
United States:
In the US, patent term extensions (PTEs) are governed by the Hatch-Waxman Act (1984).
Here, too, the idea is to compensate for regulatory delays. A PTE can add up to five years to
a patent, but the total effective patent life (including the extension) cannot exceed 14 years
from the product’s approval date.
Both systems aim to strike a balance between rewarding innovation and allowing earlier
access to generics.

Does Turkey Have SPCs?

Not exactly—but it has a workaround.
Turkey is not part of the EU, so EU SPCs don’t apply here. Also, Turkish patent law does not
currently provide a local equivalent of the SPC or a direct patent term extension mechanism.
Once a patent expires, protection ends—regardless of how long it took for the drug to
receive marketing authorization.
This can present challenges for pharmaceutical companies, especially when launching in
Turkey takes longer than in other jurisdictions due to pricing negotiations or regulatory
procedures.
The Turkish Alternative: Data Exclusivity
While Turkish law doesn’t offer SPCs, there is a specific provision in the Regulation on the
Licensing of Human Medicinal Products (last amended in 2022) that provides limited data
exclusivity:
 Data exclusivity in Turkey lasts for six years starting from the first marketing
authorization date in Turkey, or from the first authorization in the European Customs
Union (whichever is later), provided that the application is filed in Turkey within 12
months of that first authorization.
This is not the same as a patent term extension—but it does create a form of market
protection by preventing generic applicants from relying on the originator’s data during the
exclusivity period.
What does “relying on the originator’s data” mean?
When a pharmaceutical company develops a new drug, it submits a detailed dossier to
regulatory authorities that includes preclinical and clinical trial data to prove the drug’s
safety, efficacy, and quality. This data is costly and time-consuming to generate.
Generic companies, when they want to enter the market, typically don’t repeat these trials.
Instead, they file an abbreviated application that refers to the original drug’s
dossier—effectively relying on the originator’s data to gain approval.
Data exclusivity blocks this shortcut. For the duration of the exclusivity period (six years in
Turkey), regulators are not allowed to approve generics based on the originator’s data.
Generic manufacturers would need to generate their own full set of clinical data—a move
that is rarely feasible in practice.
So, while data exclusivity doesn’t extend the patent, it offers a different type of barrier to
generic entry by protecting the data that supports the original drug’s approval.

Final Thoughts

For companies operating globally, it’s important to remember that patent protection in
Turkey ends when the 20-year term ends—no extensions. However, data exclusivity may
offer limited commercial protection post-patent in some cases, especially for innovative
products with later Turkish launches.
If you’re filing in Turkey or advising clients who are, the key is to plan early. Consider
regulatory timelines, pricing strategy, and data exclusivity terms to make the most of the
available protection.

ip valitra about

RESPECTING THE ART OF TRANSLATION

Translation

RESPECTING THE ART OF TRANSLATION
Translation is considered to be one of the most important parts of the patent validation process. If you search through websites of patent companies, you will come across articles written on the importance of translations. I share the same idea, but I doubt whether this situation is well understood.
I am a chemist and I’ve been working as a patent attorney since 2010, translating patents since 2012. l will explain the importance of, and problems related to, translations during validation procedures from my point of view. It seems there are two main reasons that accurate translations are so crucial: translations allow inventors to protect their inventions outside their home countries, and they provide a massive amount of technical information to the public free of charge.
When patents are validated in Turkey, inventions are protected by translated documents, not by original applications. So, it’s essential to provide accurate translations to the patent office. This can be achieved via translators and patent attorneys. All translations should be proofread and reviewed by a patent attorney, and this is one of the points where a serious issue arises. In Turkey, patent attorneys do not need to hold a technical degree. So, when it comes to reviewing and proofreading the translated patent documents, not all patent attorneys are equally qualified for the task. When a person without a technical degree proofreads a translation, they may not have the technical knowledge they need.
Another issue resulting in inaccurate translation is the lack of extensive technical dictionaries. Sometimes translators have to search the web for books, dissertations, academic papers, etc., in order to find a proper translation for technical terms. However, translation agencies and patent companies often set a very tight turnaround time for projects, so translators may skip this time-consuming step. Technical translation is not a profitable job in Turkey so many qualified technical people avoid it as a profession and those who do enter the profession often work long hours in order to make a living, and may feel pressure to skip this important step.
While I was working as a patent attorney in a pharmaceutical company, I preferred to read patents in English instead of Turkish due to poor translations. Reading original patents in English is not an option for people in Turkey who don’t have the language skills needed. This is a huge disadvantage, because patent documents have the potential to provide a massive amount of technical information.
lmproving the process
Although I have encountered some companies in Turkey that handle validation and translation procedures successfully, I think there are some measures that should be taken in order to improve translation procedures across the board. First, companies should take the responsibility for protecting inventions very seriously and acknowledge the risks and dangers associated with inaccurate translations. Second, companies should put an extra effort into hiring qualified translators and patent attorneys with technical knowledge. Last but not least, patent companies should establish their own client-based or technical field-based glossaries with the help of computer-aided translation (CAT) tools. These glossaries can be provided to the translators, which would make the process faster.
Translators play a central role in accurate patent translations. Translators should respect their work and try to find ways to prepare more comprehensible and technically correct translated texts with a special focus on consistency. Investing in their work, for example by using CAT tools, may help them achieve this goal. They should also stand up to translation and patent agencies that undervalue and undercompensate their work.
Foreign companies seeking to work with Turkish agencies to obtain validation translations should be careful about the whole process. I would advise them to consider how much a translator will earn for the validation translation. Translators may earn far less money when there are many intermediaries before translations reach them. This probably means that the translator will be less qualified and the translation may suffer.
As an insider in the validation translation industry, I have shared my insights into why and how translations for validations should be improved. To protect the full scope of inventions with accurate and precise translations, to contribute to spreading technical knowledge, all the actors in the process-including foreign patent agencies, local patent agencies and translators must recognize the real value of translations. Then they should carry their share of the responsibility to enhance translation quality.

Duygu ERGUNES