Applications for patents and utility models, registration and post-registration procedures, also legal and penal sanctions for violation of these rights are regulated within the scope of the Industrial Property Law No. 6769. In this context, inventions with commercial value are protected from imitation by protecting them with a patent or utility model. Those who receive a patent or utility model certificate prevent people other than the applicant from using the invention without permission and have exclusive rights for a certain period of time.
WHAT IS INVENTION?
According to the Turkish Patent and Trademark Office, an invention is defined as an idea product that has a technical feature and is aimed at solving a specific problem in the field of technology. The point to be considered here is that the technical problem that occurs in the field of technology may have more than one solution and each solution with different technical characteristics can be considered as a different invention.
UTILITY MODEL
The utility model is the concept of industrial property right in which the novelty and applicability to industry is definitely sought.
- Novelty: An invention which is not included in the state of the art shall be considered as novel. In accordance with the Industrial Property Act, the state of the art shall covers, everything accessible to the public which has been demonstrated through written or verbal promotion or disclosed in any other way, in any part of the society before the application date.
- Applicability to industry: The Industrial Property Act accepts that the invention that can be produced or used in any branch of the industry, including agriculture, is applicable to industry.
The utility model certificate can be obtained both in a shorter time and at a lower cost compared to a patent.
PATENT
In order for a technological invention to be patentable, it is required that the invention is novel, includes an inventive step and is applicable to industry in accordance with the Industrial Property Act.
Invention step; Considering the state of the art, the invention, which is not obvious to the expert in the related field, is considered to be an inventive step. At the stage of the search report, the closest documents in the state of the art related to the subject of the invention (all documents published anywhere in the world before the application date of the invention with a date) are listed, and within these documents whether the invention has an inventive step or not is also listed in the documents. At the stage of the examination report, it is created by examining in terms of patentability criteria (novelty, inventive step, applicability to industry).
According to the Turkish Patent and Trademark Office, the patent is a monopoly right granted to the applicant by preventing the unauthorized production, use or sale of the invention by third parties for a limited time and place.
SIMILARITIES BETWEEN UTILITY MODEL AND PATENT
- In both types of registration, the invention must be novel and applicable to the industry.
- If it is found that the utility model or patent applications are not deficient in terms of conformity with the formal conditions, the applicant makes a search report request and a search report is prepared.
DIFFERENCES BETWEEN UTILITY MODEL AND PATENT
- The main difference between utility model and patent is that while the invention step condition is sought in the patent, the utility model is not sought. While it is sufficient for the utility model to be novel and applicable to the industry, it must also include an inventive step in order for an invention to obtain a patent.
- Another difference is that the protection period of the patent is 20 years, while the protection period of the utility model is 10 years.
- In addition, while the following can be protected as a patent, they cannot be protected as a utility model.
- a) Inventions related to chemical and biological substances or chemical and biological methods or products obtained by these methods,
- b) Inventions related to pharmaceutical-related substances or pharmaceutical-related methods or products obtained by these methods,
- c) Biotechnological inventions,
ç) Inventions relating to the products obtained by methods or these methods
- In order for the application to be patented in order to provide protection with a patent, an examination report must be obtained regarding whether the application meets the criteria specified in the Industrial Property Act, while there is no examination report process needed provide in the utility model application process.
As a result; The differences and similarities that need to be considered in accordance with the Industrial Property Act regarding whether an invention should be registered as a utility model or a patent before the Turkish Patent and Trademark Office are as shared above. While looking for novelty and applicability to industry in both types of registration; the main difference between the two registrations is that while the invention step requirement is sought for patent registration, this condition is not sought for utility model registration.
Melodi Olcay Keskiner, Attorney At Law
