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Turkey's Research Authority Expanded the Scope of Patent Incentives

The Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TUBITAK) and Turkish Patent and Trademark Office (TURKPATENT) have signed the protocol expanding Patent Support Programheld between both public institutions.

President of TUBITAK Prof. Dr. A. Arif Ergin, speaking at the signing ceremony of the protocol held at TUBITAK, said that the amendments made in "1602 Patent Support Program" will provide more support for the inventions.

Prof. Ergin said that as an institution, they support the increase of the contribution of science and technology in enriching the intellectual property of Turkey, and added that the protocol is important in terms of increasing the amount of applications and incentives in the registration process.

Prof. Ergin said that the program was supported by TUBITAK in a certain rate since the past and noted: Since TURKPATENT was the search authority last year, we have changed the scope of our support. There are titles in the protocol which are improved compared to the old one. We constitute a structure that TUBITAK will meet the financial responsibilities of all applications filed through TURKPATENT. We are increasing the support amount for patent attorneys by doubling. We are also expanding coverage on the basis of countries. We open our door to everyone who comes to TUBITAK and telling I have an idea. Our aim is to give support to transform the ideas into a commercial commodity, but things that become commercial commodities need to be protected and supported by a registration mechanism. Our protocol with TURKPATENT means that ideas or inventions will be supported in a way that will close our current account deficit by passing them into commercial life.

The President of TURKPATENT, Habib Asan mentioned that in Turkey in recent years the number of patent applications increased significantly on both national and international basis. Prof. Asan said that within the scope of "1008 Incentive Support Program" which was started to be implemented for the first time in cooperation with TUBITAK, incentive amount of 14 million Turkish Lira for approximately 9 thousand 500 national patents were used between the years 2007 and 2014. Asan said that the program was revised with the code "1602" in 2014, adding that it provided incentive in the amount of 7,2 million Turkish lira for the demands for over 15 thousand national applications.

In this context, Asan stressed that TUBITAK used incentives of approximately 35 million Turkish Lira in the field of industrial property in 2007-2017, said: Turkey has become the country in Europe where most trademark applications have been filed with 120 thousand trademark applications in 2017, as in the last 6 years. Last year, over 40 thousand design applications were filed. We are the second in Turkey with these applications. Turkey's national patent applications have increased at a rate of 34 percent compared to the previous year and reached to total 8 thousand 625 applications. The international applications under the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) have reached to 4 digit figures for the first time with 1068 applications.

Pointing out that the support provided by TUBITAK plays an important role in success, Asan said: If real or legal entities in Turkey select TURKPATENT as International Search and Examination Authority, all their costs will be met in the scope of the Patent Support Program. The scope of support which is previously given for the patents registered in US Patent Office, European Patent Office and Japan Patent Office has been expanded such as to cover China and South Korea. I predict that number of industrial property applications in Turkey will reach the record level in 2018.

He also said that the support granted to patent attorneys, who play an important role in turning the inventions into patent applications, was increased from 250 to 1000 liras.

Following the speeches, a protocol was signed between the two institutions regarding the patent support program

Source: TUBITAK