DESIGNS

The primary legislation governing designs is the Industrial Property Code No. 6769, which entered into force on January 10, 2017.

Yes, Turkey is a party to the Locarno Agreement, and the provisions of the Locarno Agreement on International Classification of Designs are applied to the classification of the products for which the design is used or applied.

An applicant can directly file a design application before TURKPATENT, or the applicant can file an international design application through WIPO designating Turkey.

Yes. The registration request for multiple designs can be made up to 100 designs provided that the additional application fee is paid. In multiple applications, each design, except for the ornamentation, should be of the same class according to Locarno Classification. In multiple design applications, examination for registration is done separately.

A design is described as the appearance of the whole or a part of a product
resulting from the features of, the line, contour, color, shape, material, or texture of the
product itself or its ornamentation under Article 55/1 of the IP Code. And, a product is described as any industrial or handicraft item, including parts intended to be assembled into a complex product, products like packaging, presentations of more than one object perceived together, graphic symbols, and typographic typefaces according to Article 55/2. It should be noted that computer programs are not considered products.

According to Article 56/1, a design should be novel and has individual character to be protected. For a design to meet the novelty requirement, it should not be presented to the public in any part of the world before the application or the priority date. For a design to bear an individual character, the impression it leaves on the informed user should be different from the impression left by any design made available to the public before the application or priority date of the said design. While assessing distinctive character, the degree of freedom of the designer in developing the design is taken into account.

Designs that do not meet novelty requirement and do not have individual character, and which do not comply with the requirements of Article 58/4 of the IP Code are excluded from protection.

The protection starts as of the application date. The term of the legal protection of a design is 5 years. Protection can be renewed for five-year periods at the end of each term of protection by payment of the renewal fees. The maximum term of protection of a registered design is 25 years from the filing date.

Yes. Since designers would like to gain insight into market success before spending on registered design protection, a 12 month grace period preceding the date of filing of the application is allowed by Article 57/2 of the IP Code. Disclosure of the design will not destroy the novelty or individual character of the design during the grace period.

It takes approximately 6-8 months to register a design in case of no oppositions or office actions.

Following documents are required for filing a design application:

• the application form containing information about the applicant's identity;
• the visual representation that reflects the appearance of the design and that enables
  reproduction through publication;
• the name of the product in which the design is incorporated or to which it is applied;
• the name and address of the designer(s);
• deferment of publication, if any;
• payment receipt of the official fee.
  It is not required to submit a Power of Attorney (POA).

No, it is not mandatory to submit a description of the design along with the filing.

The applicant may claim priority for any subsequent identical application within 6 months, starting from the date of filing of the earlier application filed in a foreign country under the rule of the Paris Agreement. The priority right can also be earned through exhibition. In this case, the applicant may claim priority right within 6 months from the date of the exhibition. The priority right should be requested and the relevant fee should be paid at the filing stage, and the documents regarding this request and the priority document with the certified translation should be submitted to TURKPATENT within 3 months from the application date.

Yes. Applicants who do not have their residence or principal place of business in Turkey must be represented by a legal representative.

Yes. According to Article 66/1 of the IP Code, the applicant along with the application may request deferment of the publication for 30 months starting from the application date. In such a case, the representation of the design is published after the expiration of the 30-month deferment period by payment of the publication fee. However, during this period, the publication of the design may be brought forward at the request of the applicant. If a sample of the design or product for which design is applied, is provided along with the application in the case of two-dimensional designs, then the visual representation of the design should be submitted before publication.

Visual representation of the design can be in the form of a picture, drawing, graphic, photograph, or similar form that reflects the visual characteristics of the design and is suitable for reproduction through publication. Visual representations should be prepared in JPEG format with a resolution of 300 dpi, and they should be at least 8x8 cm, 8x16 cm, 16x8 cm, or a maximum of 16x16 cm in size.

In the first place, TURKPATENT checks whether the filed application fulfills the formal requirements including the payment of the application fee. If there is not any deficiency, an application number and a filing date will be assigned. However, if the necessary documents are missing or incomplete, the applicant is expected to correct the deficiencies in due time.
If there is no deficiency or the deficiencies are remedied in due time, TURKPATENT continues with novelty examination during which it can reject registration requests for the following reasons according to Article 64/6 of the IP Code:

• not complying with design and product description;
• violating public policy or morality;
• made by natural persons and legal entities not included in the scope of Article 3 of the IP Code;
• containing the inappropriate use of sovereignty signs taking place in the scope of repeating Article 6 ter of Paris Convention and that covers signs, arms, certificates of achievement or denominations which are outside of this scope but interest the public order and becoming public knowledge in terms of religious, historical and cultural values and for which registration permit shall not be granted by relevant authorities;
• determined not to be new.
  Applications that fall in one or more of the above categories will be completely or partially refused. In such a case, the applicants can appeal the decision of TURKPATENT within 2 months from the notification date.

A design application that fulfills the formal requirements and is not refused after novelty examination is granted registration and recorded in the Registry. Henceforth, the registration will be susceptible to oppositions. Only after overcoming the oppositions or in case of no opposition, can a Registration Certificate be issued.

Third parties may file an opposition by paying the prescribed fee within 3 months from the publication of the application in the Design Bulletin by submitting a justified, written objection.

Opposition to publication is made to TURKPATENT by submitting a signed objection to the publication form, in which the reasons for the objection are written in detail by stating the relevant parts of the legislation. The relevant fee can be paid and the grounds for opposition can be submitted within the prescribed period of 3 months from the publication.
TURKPATENT gives the applicant 1 month to submit a response against the grounds stated in the opposition, and, if it deems necessary, may give the parties 1 month to make explanations regarding additional information, documents, and justifications. The parties may submit additional information and documents to support their opinions, claims, and justifications until a decision is made on the objection.

Third parties may file an opposition against a design application claiming that the design

• is not complying with design and product description in Article 55/1 and Article 55/2;
• is failing to meet the novelty requirement and does not have an individual character according to Article 56;
• is failing to fulfill the disclosure requirement according to Article 57;
• is out of scope of design protection according to Article 58/4 and application is rejectable under Article 64/6;
• application is made in bad faith; and
• contains the unauthorized use of intellectual property rights.

An applicant who is not satisfied with the decision may file an appeal before the Re-examination and Re-evaluation Board of TURKPATENT within 2 months from the notification date. Since this decision is the final decision of TURKPATENT, applicants who are not satisfied with the decision have the right to challenge it before the court within 2 months from the date of notification.

Opponents may not appeal against the decision of TURKPATENT. However, if they are not satisfied with the decision of TURKPATENT, they also have the right to challenge it before the court within 2 months from the notification of the decision.

After the applicant pays the prescribed fee for registration, TURKPATENT will publish the registration of the mark on the Design Bulletin and issue a Registration Certificate.

Yes, a design (application/registration) right may be subject to a license within the whole or part of the national borders.

Yes. Licenses may be granted as exclusive licenses or non-exclusive licenses. Unless
otherwise agreed in the contract, the license cannot be exclusive. In the non-exclusive license contracts, the licensor may exploit the same design right or may grant licenses to third parties. An exclusive license means that licensor may not grant licenses to third parties, and unless the right has been reserved, may not use the design himself.

No. Unless otherwise agreed in the contract, a licensee may not transfer her rights arising from the license to third parties or grant sub-licenses.

If the licensee received an exclusive license, then he can commence legal proceedings against an infringement. If the licensee has a non-exclusive license, the licensee may request the right owner to start the required legal proceeding with a notification. In case the right holder does not accept this request or does not file the requested legal proceeding within 3 months, the licensee will have the right to commence the legal proceeding.

The following documents are required for the registration and publication of the license in the Registry:

• request form;
• the licensing agreement stating the signatures and statements of the licensee and the licensor, name of the design, registration number of the design, the sequence numbers of designs in case of a multiple application, the license fee (if any), and the license period;
• if the licensing agreement is in a foreign language, its Turkish translation approved by a sworn translator;
• payment receipt of the official fee;
  A Power of Attorney is not required.

No, notarization of a licensing agreement is not required.

To obtain protection, unregistered designs should be novel and have individual character, and should be presented to the public for the first time in Turkey.

The term of protection of unregistered designs is a non-extendable time limit of 3 years as from the first presentation date to the public of the design in Turkey.

According to Article 59/1 and 59/2 of the IP Code, an unregistered design gives the right owner the right to prevent third parties producing, putting on the market, selling, importing, using for commercial purposes, or keeping in stock for those purposes the product in which the design is incorporated or to which it is applied, or to make a recommendation for a contract under the condition that copies of identical designs or in respect of overall impression copies of indistinguishably similar designs are used.