Guide for Turkish Patent Application Process

20 years

• via Paris Convention : 12 months from earliest priority date.
• via Nationalization of PCT : 30 months from the earliest priority date.
• Validation of European Patent in EPO member states: 3 months from the date of European patent grant.

TURKPATENT conducts formality examination and substantive examination of the invention patent application. The applicant needs to file the request for an prior art search within 12 months from the filing date, after that, the applicant needs to file a substantive examination within 3 months after receiving the search report. The application of PCT national phase does not need to search the prior art. The request for search should not be later than 15 months from the filing date/priority date. The search report will indicate the documents to be considered in determining whether the invention to which the application relates is novelty and inventive step. If the patent application has been published, the search report will be published separately; if the patent application has not been published before the issuance of the search report, the search report will be published together with the patent application. If Turkpatent believes that the patent application does not comply with Turkish law, it will notify the applicant to file a response or amend the application documents within 3 months from the date of the issuance of notification. However, the amendments cannot go beyond the scope of the application. The response or modification process can be repeated no more than 3 times.

The novelty of an invention will not be affected if it is disclosed within 12 months before its patent application date or priority date:

• Disclosed by the inventor;
• Disclosed by the Patent Application Accepting Authority,
• and that information is included in:
  • In other applications of the inventor, and disclose the application when the relevant authority should not disclose the application;
  • In applications submitted by third parties who have obtained information directly or indirectly from the inventor without the inventor's permission;
• Disclosure of the invention by a third party who has obtained information, directly or indirectly, from the inventor.

2-3 years

• Grant fee: The applicant shall pay the granted fee within 2 months after receipt of the notification of granted.
• Annuity: Annuity should be paid from the 3rd year from the filing date, the annual fee shall be paid year by year. For the application of PCT entering the national phase of Turkey, the maintenance fee before granted shall be paid. If the annual fee is overdue, it can be paid within a grace period of 6 months, and a 125% late fee will be paid at the same time.

Reinstatement of priority on grounds of "due care" accepted.

Yes

Yes. After the applicant pays the prescribed fee, he can file a request to change the patent type from Invention to Utility Model.