Intellectual Property Rights

There is a complexity of terms regarding intellectual property rights. Different terms are used such as “intellectual property” in English, “propriėtė intellectuelle” in French, “intellectual property”, “intellectual and industrial property”, “intellectual and industrial property”, “fikri ve sanayi mülkiyet” in Turkish. Their meanings and scopes are the same. These concepts include ideas and works of art, patents, brands, utility models, designs, geographical names and signs, integrated circuit topographies, computer programs and databases, and know-how and trade secrets.

Intellectual property rights can be addressed in two groups:

• Intellectual and artistic works (copyrights)

• Industrial property rights

Intellectual and artistic works are the works in the fields of science, literature, music, architecture, fine arts, or cinema, computer programs and databases. Industrial property rights are the rights that allow inventions, innovations, original designs in the field of industry and agriculture to be registered in the name of their creators, or to distinguish goods and services in the field of trade, to register the marks on behalf of their owners and to use the right holders for absolute and exclusive use for a certain period.

The features of intellectual property rights are:

• Intellectual property rights are the product of the human mind.

• They can be built on intangible goods.

• Rights are subjected to private law.

• They are absolute rights, they can be claimed against everyone.

• They provide financial and moral benefits to the right holder.

The World Intellectual Property Organization, headquartered in Geneva, was established on 14 June 1967 with The WIPO Convention. Convention entered into force in 1970 and was amended in 1979. The World Intellectual Property Organization is an intergovernmental organization that became one of the specialized agencies of the United Nations system of organizations in 1974. Turkey has been a member of The World Intellectual Property Organization since 1975. This organization is called WIPO, which stands for the English “World Organization for Intellectual Property”, or OMPI, which stands for French “Organization Mondiale de la Propriėtė Intellectuelle”. The business field of the organization is copyrights and industrial property rights.

Most-favored-nation: Treating other people equally. Under the WTO agreements, countries cannot normally discriminate between their trading partners. When you grant someone a special favor (such as a lower customs duty rate for one of their products), you have to do the same for all other WTO members.

Turkey has been a party to The Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) since 1995. However, with the decision of the Council of Ministers, which decided to participate in the Agreement, the Agreement has been valid since 1994.

Purposes for the establishment of the Turkish Patent and Trademark Office can be listed as follows:

1. To contribute to Turkey’s technological progress

2. To create a free competition environment within the country

3. To ensure the development of research and development activities

4. To establish industrial property rights with patents and trademarks and to provide protection in this regard

5. To present the information and documentation related to industrial property rights at home and abroad to the public’s benefit.

The objectives of intellectual property protection are listed as follows:

1. Recognition of mental productivity by society,

2. Encouraging invention and innovation activities by establishing a fair competition scheme,

3. Rewarding the idea workers by supporting technological and cultural progress,

4. Promoting economic growth and employment,

5. Enrichment of public information and cultural treasury,

6. Dissemination of technical knowledge by explaining the results of Research and Development (R&D),

7. Withdrawal of foreign capital,

8. International relations.

Intellectual and artistic works are all kinds of intellectual products bearing the characteristics of the owner and created by an intellectual and mental effort. It is regulated by Law No. 5846 on Intellectual and Artistic Works (IAWL) (Official newspaper: Date:13 December 1951, P.7931).

According to regulation the Intellectual and Artistic Works Law, intellectual and artistic works are divided into four groups:

1. Literary and Scientific Works

2. Musical Works

3. Works of Fine Arts

4. Cinematographic Works

The author of a work is the person who has created it. The author of an adaptation or collection is the person who has made the adaptation, provided that the rights of the original author arereserved. In the case of cinematographic works, the director, the composer of original music, the scriptwriter, and the dialogue writer are joint authors of the work. For cinematographic works that are produced with the technique of animation, the animator is also among the joint authors of the work (IAWL Article 8). If a work created jointly by more than one person can be divided into parts, each person shall be deemed the owner of the part s/he created (IAWL Article 9). If a work created by the participation of more than one person constitutes an indivisible whole, the author of the work is the union of the persons who created it. The provisions on ordinary partnership shall apply to such union (IAWL Article 10).

Neighboring rights: The rights that belong to performers who interpret, introduce, recite, sing, play and perform work in various ways and in an original form with the permission of the author, phonogram producers that make the first fixations of sounds that are the result of a performance or other sounds and radio-television organizations, provided that the moral and economic rights of the author are not prejudiced.

a. Works originating in one of the Contracting States (that is, works the author of which is a national of such a State or works first published in such a State) must be given the same protection in each of the other Contracting States as the latter grants to the works of its own nationals (principle of “national treatment”).

b. Protection must not be conditional upon compliance with any formality (principle of “automatic” protection).

c. Protection is independent of the existence of protection in the country of origin of the work (principle of “independence” of protection). If, however, a Contracting State provides for a longer term of protection than the minimum prescribed by the Convention and the work ceases to be protected in the country of origin, protection may be denied once protection in the country of origin ceases.

The purpose of this Law is to protect the rights relating to trademark, geographical signs, design, patent, utility model, and traditional product names, and thus to contribute to technological, economic, and social progress.

Patent can be defined as a document showing that the creative thinking of the inventor is protected under legal provisions for a certain period of time.

Patent right terminates in the case of one of the states specified below (IPL Article 140/1).; a) the expiry of the protection period; b) the waiver of the patent right of the patent holder; c) failure to pay the annual fee in time. The Office publishes in the Bulletin that patent rights terminate. The subject of the patent the right of which terminates belongs to the public as of the execution date of the reason for termination (IPL Article 140/2).

The patent can be divided into product and procedural patents, original patents and supplementary patents, public patents, and confidential patents.

Important treaties for the international protection of the patent are The Paris Convention of 1883, the Patent Cooperation Treaty of 1970 (PCT), and the European Patent Convention. These Treaties provide the inventors with the opportunity and convenience to obtain patent protection in their own country and abroad. Thus, a world-wide protection path is opened for inventions of European origin, and a European-scale protection path for non-European origins.

A small invention and a small patent that defines technical solutions based on simple formulas and principles responding to some requirements are called The utility model. For example, a slipper manufactured according to the collapse points of the soles; a magnifying glass that can be placed at the bottom of an entire page and can be read; a steel panel that keeps the window in the desired range; keyless, remote control, a buttonless entry-exit system for cars; portable seat; plastic lighted taxi advertising board, telescopic electric pole can be given as examples. The utility model only applies to products, and utility model certificates cannot be obtained for Procedures.

According to IPL Article 55, design shall be the appearance of the whole or a part of a product resulting from the features of, the line, contour, color, shape, material, or texture of the product itself or its ornamentation. Product means any industrial or handicraft item, including parts intended to be assembled into a complex product, products like packaging, presentations of more than one object perceived together, graphic symbols and typographic typefaces, but excluding computer programs (IPL Article 55/2). The complex product shall be a product which is composed of components which can be replaced or renewed by disassembly and reassembly of the product (IPL Article 55/3).

Trade Goods Mark: It is the sign that is used to distinguish the goods that a business manufactures and/or trades from those of other businesses.

Service Mark: It is the sign that is used to distinguish the services of a business from the services of other businesses. 

Guarantee Mark: A guarantee mark is a sign that serves for guaranteeing the common characteristics of initiatives, production methods, geographical origin and quality of those initiatives under the control of the proprietor of the mark (IPL Article 31/1). 

Collective Mark: Collective mark is a sign used by a group of operations of producers, traders or providers of services. 

Well-Known Trademark: In addition to these brand types, there is also a well-known trademark, but the definition of the well-known trademark is not included in the legal regulations.