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Turkey became a member of the European Patent Convention (EPC) in 2000 and is now actively seeking membership in the EU. In order to weaken the EU's criticism of its intellectual property protection status and achieve integration with the EU legislative system, Turkey has stepped up the improvement and revision of intellectual property-related laws and regulations, further strengthened domestic intellectual property enforcement, and achieved achievements in the field of intellectual property. Increasingly prominent. This article provides a brief introduction to the Turkish intellectual property system and the Turkish Patent Office:

1. Turkish laws and regulations on intellectual property

Turkey enacted its first Patent Act in 1879 and became one of the early countries to have intellectual property laws. However, it was not until the establishment of the Turkish Patent Office (TPI) in 1994 that Turkey's patent legal system was further regulated, and in 1995, a series of intellectual property laws and regulations, such as the Patent Law (according to the Turkish Government Announcement No. 551, replacing the original Patent Law), the Trademark Law, the Regulations on the Protection of Industrial Designs, and the Copyright Law, have established a modern legal framework for the protection of intellectual property rights in Turkey. In 2004, Turkey passed the "Plant variety right Protection Act" and "integrated circuit layout protection act", which basically has a complete and unified intellectual property legislation system.

The Turkish Patent Law (1995) provides for patent protection, patentability criteria (novelty, creativity and practicality), application disclosure, third party objection, patent protection period, conversion of invention and utility model application, employee invention, infringement compensation and other protection matters for inventions and utility models authorized by examination or non-examination (non-examined). Turkey's post-examination authorized invention patent protection period is 20 years, non-examination authorized invention patent protection period is 7 years, and utility model protection period is 10 years. The applicant can delay the time for entering the actual trial by 7 years by obtaining the protection of the non-examination invention patent.

The Turkish Patent Law (1995) does not grant patents for the following subjects:

-scientific discoveries, scientific theories and mathematical methods;

-plans, methods, programmes and rules governing intellectual activities, commercial and trade activities and games;

-literary and artistic works, scientific works and creations with aesthetic characteristics;

-computer programs;

-methods for the collection, management, provision or presentation and dissemination of information or data, which do not contain technical elements;

-therapeutic, surgical and diagnostic methods intended for use on the human or animal body, excluding the products and compositions themselves used in such methods and manufacturing processes;

-inventions contrary to public order or social morality;

-- Animal and plant varieties and breeding methods mainly dependent on biological factors.

The Turkish Patent Law (1995) provides that the publication of an invention within 12 months (including the grace period) before the filing date/priority date does not affect the novelty of a subsequent patent application, provided that the following conditions are met:

-disclosed by the inventor;

-Information disclosed by the organization and included in the following applications: 1. Another application submitted by the inventor who is not disclosed by the organization; 2. A third party who directly or indirectly learns the content of the invention and creation from the inventor, and the inventor is unknown or does not agree. Application submitted under the circumstances;

-The third party who directly or indirectly learns the contents of the invention from the inventor.

The Turkish Patent Law (1995) stipulates that "exceeding the existing technology" means creativity. In short, professionals in the relevant technical field are considered to be creative if they cannot clearly realize the results of their actions based on the existing technology. Turkey's utility model patent application has no creative requirements.

In 2006, TPI published the draft of the new Patent Law on its official website. The draft seeks to bring Turkey's patent system into line with the EPC and the Patent Law Treaty, and is expected to be approved by the new parliament after the new round of presidential elections. The key amendments to the new Patent Law include the addition of biotechnological inventions and the elimination of the non-examined-patent system. In addition, in order to be consistent with the content of the EPC, Turkey will abolish the pre-authorization third-party objection system and change it to a post-authorization objection system for patent applications, but third parties will still have the right to submit written observations on pending applications. At the same time, the third party has the right to request the utility model application that raises the objection to issue a novelty search report, which can reduce the burden of the intellectual property court, especially the invalid litigation for the lack of novelty of the authorized utility model.

In order to bring the Turkish patent agency system in line with international standards, Turkey intends to establish an association of patent agents to regulate the ethical and professional standards of practitioners. The drafting of the relevant draft law was completed in 2006, but has not yet been officially approved. There are currently 362 registered patent agents in Turkey.

2. Turkish IP Enforcement Initiatives

Turkey has a series of relatively complete intellectual property law enforcement measures, such as intellectual property litigation, judicial protection, compensation, injunction relief and border measures. Turkey plans to set up 12 specialized courts for intellectual property cases. At present, special criminal and civil courts for intellectual property have been set up in Istanbul, Ankara and Izmir, while intellectual property cases in other cities are tried by the third local civil/criminal court. Turkey has also cooperated with the European Union to train a group of judges who specialize in hearing intellectual property cases, forming a team of highly qualified professional judges. With the expansion of the number of judges, Turkey will also continue to add intellectual property courts to provide stronger protection for intellectual property rights.

Turkey has a variety of criminal penalties for IPR infringement, such as detention, fines, suppression of illegal activities and closure of business premises. In view of the fact that the intermediate ban is a convenient and effective way to stop the infringement of intellectual property rights, Turkey's laws on the protection of inventions, utility models, trademarks, industrial designs and geographical indications have made more detailed provisions on this. Patent holders can also stop unauthorized use of their intellectual property by requesting a permanent injunction. In addition, the patent holder may also request the court to order the defendant to provide security during the adjudication process to ensure its reasonable claim for compensation.

3. Turkish Patent Office (TPI)

1. Organization

TPI is the only government agency responsible for industrial property protection in Turkey. TPI is headquartered in Ankara, and the highest decision-making body is the management committee. There are 7 members. Except for the senior TPI, the rest are from the Turkish Ministry of Industry and Trade, the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Justice. TPI has an advisory committee composed of 31 people from relevant departments, thus ensuring the communication and coordination between the intellectual property authorities and relevant units. In addition, TPI also has a review and evaluation committee (Reexamination and Evaluation Board) to accept authorized patent opposition and invalidation requests.

TPI has one director and two deputy directors. The deputy directors are responsible for the management of the departments of patent, trademark, industrial design, research planning and coordination, and personnel, administration and finance, information documentation and information technology, and project implementation.

TPI has a staffing of 400, including 230 civil servants and 170 contract personnel. At present, there are still a large number of vacancies. As of the end of 2006, TPI had a total of 232 personnel, including 68 Secondary specialized school and trademark examiners, 36 management personnel and a number of supporting personnel.

2. Patent application, examination and approval process

(1) Patent application

The way to file a patent application with the Turkish Patent Office is:

-Regular applications;

-enter the national phase through the PCT route;

-European patent for Turkey in the designated country granted under EPC.

The patent application shall be filed in Turkish. The patent specification and claims may be written in English, French and German at the time of filing, but a Turkish translation shall be submitted within one month from the date of filing. Applicants who do not have a residence or office in Turkey must designate a registered patent agency to submit their application.

(2) Patent examination

Since 2005, TPI has been undertaking search and examination in a number of technical areas, which were previously undertaken by its EPO (search only), the Swedish, Danish, Russian and Austrian patent offices. Turkey does not have an accelerated review system, and the Austrian Patent Office can accept the relevant review on its behalf, but it must pay a fee.

Turkey's review reports fall into three categories: actual review reports, notification of review opinions, and authorization or rejection reports. If there is an objection to the results of the TPI review, an appeal may be filed with the Turkish Intellectual Property Court on sufficient grounds and evidence. Since therapeutic, surgical and diagnostic methods for the human or animal body are not patentable in Turkey, neither pharmaceutical patent applications nor therapeutic method claims are recognized, and if the claims are adapted to Swiss-type claims, a decision will be made on the basis of the opinion of the examination report. In addition, a divisive application may be made at any time before the original application is authorized or rejected.

(3) Approval process

A patent usually takes 4-5 years from application to authorization, and a regular patent application is subject to the following procedures:

-Formal review (1-3 months);

-novelty search (filed within 15 months from the filing date/priority date);

-the application is published (18 months from the filing date/priority date);

-The retrieval report is made public (1 year from the request);

-decision on the choice of patent type (examined invention patent with a 20-year protection period; or unexamined invention patent with a 7-year protection period);

-- Actual review and further review (up to 3 reviews);

-Authorization or Rejection.

It is not feasible to challenge a granted patent until the TPI has made a decision that the application does not have the unity, novelty or inventive step of the invention, unless it does not meet the form requirements. Legal action can usually be brought to invalidate an authorized patent. The third party will only raise an objection to the patent application to the TPI within 6 months from the publication date of the search report during the application review period (before authorization), and submit relevant documents. The examiner will consider the objection during the review process.