PATENT

Patent Application in Turkiye

There are 4 ways that may be followed to file a patent application in Turkiye. First of all, if you have a PCT application, you can enter into the national phase with your PCT application. Secondly, if you have an application in a country that is a member of the Paris Convention or Agreement on Establishing the World Trade Organization, you can enter to Turkiye by using the priority right of that application. The third way is to validate a European Patent under EPC. And lastly, under certain circumstances (detailed below) you can file a patent application directly in Turkiye.

  1. PCT – TR NATIONAL PHASE

    After a PCT application is filed, it is possible to enter to Turkiye within 30 months from the priority date (if there is no priority, from the international application date) with Turkish translation of the description set (i.e. specification). The time limit for entering Turkiye can be extended to 33 months from the priority or international application date by paying an additional fee. If a patent application is preferred at the entrance to the national phase, a request for examination must be made after the letter of conformity to be sent from the Turkish Patent and Trademark Office (TurkPatent). If the International Search Report is negative, we strongly advice to file an opinion against to the Search Report.

    Requirements for filing a patent application via PCT:

    • - Set of description
    • - Applicant’s name, address, phone number and email address.
    • - E-mail address of the inventors, gender of the inventors, phone number of the inventors, nationality of the inventors and the residence address of the inventors

    REMARKS:

    • The validity term of a Patent in Turkiye is 20 years from the international filing date.
    • When you enter to TR National Phase, the Patent protection will have already begun from the international filing date in Turkiye.
    • The examination report request cannot be filed with the application simultaneously.
    • When an examination report is requested, the process (preparing an examination report) will take place about 18 months. If the examination report is positive, the patent shall be decided to be granted and this decision is published in the patent bulletin for 6 months. If there is no 3rd party opposition within this period, the grant of the patent will become absolute.
    • If the examination report is negative, we should file an opinion against the examination report. If we convert the report to positive, the process will be the same as the positive examination report process.
    • The annuity fees must be paid from the 3rd year. For example, the 3rd annuity fee of an application filed on 20.06.2019 must be paid until 20.06.2021.

  2. EUROPEAN PATENT VALIDATION

    After a European patent is granted by the European Patent Office (EPO) and the grant decision is published, it can be validated in Turkiye before the TurkPatent within 3 months from the publication date of the grant. Translation of the description and claims into Turkish should be filed within this period.

    Requirements for filing an EP validation

    • - European patent number and application number
    • - Publication page of the European patent
    • - Translation of the description and claims into Turkish
    • - Applicant’s name, address, phone number and email address.
    • - E-mail address of the inventors, gender of the inventors, phone number of the inventors, nationality of the inventors and the residence address of the inventors

    REMARKS:

    • Before publication of the grant, provisional protection can be requested by filing only claims of an EP application before TurkPatent.
    • The annuity fees must be paid from the 3rd year.
    • If there is any amendment/limitation in the European Patent, its translation into Turkish should be filed within 3 months from the publication of the amendment/limitation before TurkPatent.
    • An additional time request of 3 months can be filed within the 3 months period for filing the translation of the description and claims or amendment/limitation, if any.

  3. TR APPLICATION BY USING THE PRIORITY RIGHT

    Any person or his successor who have filed an application for a patent in any country which are parties of Paris Convention or Agreement on Establishing the World Trade Organization, in order to file an application for the same invention in Turkiye, shall benefit from the priority right within 12 months as of the date of the first application.

    The claim of the priority right shall be made, thereby paying the fee, together with the application or within 2 months as of the date of application; and the documents regarding this claim shall be submitted to the Office within 3 months as of the date of application. Failing this, it shall be considered that the claim of the priority right is not made. To benefit from the priority right, the document of priority from the competent authorities to which the first application has been made shall be obtained.

    When a patent application is filed, TurkPatent examines the application in formal way and sends a letter of conformity in case there is no formal deficiency. If an early publication request is made during the application, the patent application is published in the patent bulletin after formal checks. However, if there is no request for early publication, the application will be published with the search report after 18 months.

    Generally, the search report is prepared within 18 months. After that, the examination report is also usually prepared within 18-24 months. So, a patent application is concluded within 3-4 years with the duration of publications.

    On the other hand, search and examination requests can be made simultaneously, while the application is filed. So, with the receipt of the formal conformity letter, TurkPatent will start to prepare the search report without waiting for instructions from the applicant. If the search report is positive, the process of preparing the examination report will be started without losing any time. It is expected that the grant process will take a shorter time for the applications progressing with positive reports (approximately 2-3 years).

    In case the search report is negative, opinions and/or amendments, additions and corrections in the specification and claims can be filed with the examination request within 3 months from the date of the search report notification from TurkPatent. After the notification of the examination report, the period for filing the said transactions (opinions and/or amendments, additions and corrections in the specification and claims) is also 3 months. If the examination report is positive, the patent shall be decided to be granted and this decision is published in the patent bulletin for 6 months. If there is no 3rd party opposition, the grant of the patent will become absolute. There may be max. 3 notifications from TurkPatent asking for amendments or opinions during preparation of examination report by TurkPatent. If 3rd notification is also negative, the patent application will be rejected.

    Requirements for filing a patent application by using the priority right:

    • Set of description
    • Priority document
    • Applicant’s name, address, phone number and email address.
    • E-mail address of the inventors, gender of the inventors, phone number of the inventors, nationality of the inventors and the residence address of the inventors

    REMARKS:

    • The validity term of a Patent in Turkiye is 20 years from the filing date.
    • The annuity fees must be paid from the 3rd year. For example, the 3rd annuity fee of an application filed on 20.06.2019 must be paid until 20.06.2021. The table containing the annuity fees can be found on the last page of this document.

  4. DIRECT NATIONAL PATENT APPLICATION IN TURKIYE (NO PRIORITY)

    If the applicant is a citizen of a country that is a member of the Paris Convention or Agreement on Establishing the World Trade Organization, or a legal entity operating in a country that is a member of the Paris Convention or Agreement on Establishing the World Trade Organization, or according to the principle of reciprocity, if the applicant has nationality of a country that provides IP protection for persons having TR nationality, he/she can file a patent application directly in Turkiye.

    The processing steps and fees for filing a patent application are the same as in the application with priority. However, since no priority request will be made in this section, no priority fee will be incurred.

    Our related services:

    • - Filing direct patent applications
    • - PCT national phase entry into Turkiye
    • - EP validation before TurkPatent
    • - Requesting priority right
    • - Drafting patents in English
    • - Translation
    • - Requesting search and examination reports
    • - Preparation of opposition / opinion documents
    • - Preparing technical reports for use in legal procedures
    • - Filing 3rd party opinions about any patent invalidity
    • - Publication tracking and reporting
    • - Monitoring and payment of renewal fees
    • - Freedom to operate (FTO) search and reporting
    • - Declaration of use or non-use
    • - Other operations related to patent