Practice of grace period and novelty for industrial designs in Turkey

Turkey provides a 12-month grace period for maintaining novelty and obtaining protection in the case of earlier publications. Similarly, there are special situations for assessing novelty in the case of earlier applications and publications in Turkey or abroad, where it may still be possible to obtain protection for industrial designs.

Novelty grace period  

Turkey provides a 12 months grace period for earlier disclosures before filing the design applications.

Disclosure to the public includes placing on the market by means of exhibition, sale, use, description, publication, promotion or similar activities. Disclosure of the design to a third party on confidentiality conditions is not considered as making available to the public.

According to the Turkish IP Law, the following disclosures will not affect the novelty and distinctive character of an industrial design ​​within twelve months before the application date or the priority date if any priority is claimed.  

• if the industrial design was disclosed by the designer or his/her successor,
• if the industrial design was disclosed by a third party with the permission of the designer or his/her successor,
• if the industrial design was disclosed by someone abusing his/her relationship with the designer or his/her successors. 

Novelty assessment in relation to earlier filings and disclosures 

Under certain conditions, such as taking into account priority and publication dates, novelty can be preserved for industrial designs.

The following instances can be considered to determine if an industrial design can still be protected in Turkey without losing its novelty:

• If a design application (D1) was filed in Turkey on 12/12/2017 and another application for the same design (D2) was filed in Australia on 05/07/2017 and published on 20/12/2017, D2 will not be considered in the novelty assessment of D1 since it was publicly disclosed/published after the Turkish design application. The following table illustrates this.

• If the design application (D2) was filed on 05/07/2017 in Turkey (not in Australia) and published on 20/12/2017 in Turkey, it will be considered in the novelty assessment and the design application (D1) for the same design which was filed after D2 will be refused due to the lack of novelty in the presence of D2. The following table illustrates this.

• If a design application (D1) was filed in Turkey on 12/12/2017, and a third party filed a design application (D2) claiming the same design of D1 in Australia on 05/07/2017 and subsequently filed D2 in Turkey on 15/12/2017 taking advantage of priority right form the Australian application, and the priority application for D2 was not published before 12/12/2017, then D2 cannot invalidate the novelty of D1. Similarly, D1 cannot invalidate the novelty of D2 because the filing date of D1 is after the priority date of D2. The following table illustrates this.

In summary, Turkey allows protection for industrial designs disclosed before filing or not applied within priority claiming periods.