Industrial Design Protection in Turkey

     Industrial Design protection in Turkey is based on the Decree Law No: 554 Pertaining to the Protection of Industrial Designs has entered into force on June 27, 1995. The Articles 8, 26 and new Article 48/A have been amended/added by the Law No: 4128 of November 7, 1995 Implementing Regulation for legislation related to industrial design rights has entered into force on November 5, 1995.

     Design rights are obtained by registration. Unregistered designs are protected by general provisions. Registration is performed without examination and publication for opposition by third parties. The procedures for design protection in Turey is similar to the system applied in European Countries.

     The provisions of Turkish Patent System are summarized below;

• Protection of Registered designs,
• Non-examination system as to substance,
• Publication of designs,
• Opposition by third parties,
• Term of Protection is 5 years,
• Protection term can be extended up to 25 years by 4 times renewal,
• Deferment of publication,
• Multiple application,
• Modern provisions for enforcement such as; compensation of damages against infringement, documents evidencing infringement, non-realised income and increasing the non-realised income, reputation of the idesign, economical sunctions, fines and penalties
  

     In the Turkish Design Protection System a design which is new and has an individual character shall be granted for protection. Designs of products which are parts of complex items shall be protected if and when the design of the part itself is new and has individual character.

     A design shall be considered new if before the date of reference no identical design has been made available to the public in the world. Designs differing only in immaterial details shall be deemed to be identical. To make available to the public shall cover of all actions of sale, use, publication, publicity, exhibiting, or such similar activities.

     According to the Turkish design protection system; application of several designs may be combined in one application. This is called as multiple application. However, this possibility is subject to the condition, except in cases of ornamentation, that the products in which the designs are intended to be incorporated or to which they are intended to be applied all belong to the same sub-class or to the same set or composition of items.