What is an Industrial Design?
The industrial designs are any product or pieces of such products which company us in our daily lives and facilitates our lives; the patterns, ornaments which make our lives colourful and address our senses. The glass out of which we drink water, the introductory posters of a movie, the patterns on our clothes, calculator, keyboard , chair, jacket, car, traffic plates, watch, thermometer, toys, the page-setting of the date book, glasses, bags etc are the examples to this.
So, the design can best be expressed as the entirety of the various features such as lines, colour, texture, shape, sound, elasticity, material or other characteristics perceived by the human senses of the appearance of the whole or part of a product or its ornamentation.

What is a product?
In order to register the designs, they should also first be fit to the definition of “product”. The “product” in law has an extensive meaning which include any industrial or handicraft item, parts of a complex system, sets, compositions of
items, packaging, get-ups, graphic symbols and typographic typefaces, excluding the computer programmes and semi-conductor products.

What is the scope of the rights for designs, how does registration protect ?

The holder shall have the exclusive rights through protection of industrial design by registration. The third parties cannot produce, market, sell, import, or enter into contract, use the same for commercial purposes or withhold the registered designs without permission of the holder of the design rights.

What is the novelty in designs?
If the design has not been made available to the public in the world prior to the application date or the priority date, such a design shall be deemed to be “new”. If the designs differ only in immaterial details, they shall be considered as identical. To make available to the public shall cover of all actions of sale, use, publication, publicity, exhibiting, or such similar activities. If a design for which protection is claimed has been made available to the public during the twelvemonth period preceding the date of the filing of the application by the designer or his successor in title or by a third person having their approval,
such disclosure shall not affect the novelty.

What is an individual character?
A design shall be understood to have an individual character if the overall impression it creates on the informed user is significantly different from the overall impression created on the same user by any design.

What is priority right?
It shortly means the priority rights. Depending on the previously made proper applications for the design registrations abroad or on the exhibitions for this specific purpose, the Applicants will hold priority rights to make an application in Turkey for the same design w th n s x months as from the date of first filing.

What are the designs excluded from the scope of protection?
• The designs which are not new and not have an individual character.
• The designs resulting from a technical function which does not leave to the designer any freedom in the design characteristics and elements
• The designs contrary to public order and acceptable principles of morality
• The designs that must necessarily be produced in its exact form and dimensions in order to enable the product in which the design is incorporated or to which it is applied to be mechanically assembled or connected with other products

What are the contributions of the designs on the competitiveness in the markets?
The aesthetic characteristics of any product are of great importance in making decision for purchasing the products which are similar to each other in terms of quality and which present the same benefits and promises to the customer. Therefore, the consumers prefer to purchase the most attractive products among those with similar quality. The manufacturer firms develop design models for their respective customers. Such an effort creates a second competition environment beyond quality. The factors such as the form, color, volume of the product have attained importance and the newly established competition is underway. In addition, designs provide functionality, easy utilization and ergonomics as well as aesthetic contributes they make to our lives.

What is the difference between the designer and the person claiming registration right ?
Any natural or legal persons may claim for design right. The holder of design right is who manufactures, markets, sells, contracts and uses the design commercially. The designer is the person who actually made the design.

How long is the term of protection for industrial design?
The term of protection of the registered designs, is 5 years from the date of application. The term of protection may be extended up to 25 years in every 5-years renewal period.

What is multiple application ? What are the provisions for multiple application?

The multiple application is the claim for protection for more than one design in a single application. In order to make multiple application, the products should; belong to the same sub-class, or belong to the same set or be compounded with aggregately perceived multiple objects and presentations.

Which documents are required for the finalization of the application date for the registration of the industrial design?
The protection of the registered design commences upon the finalization of the
application date. If the documents specified below are submitted during application stage, the date of application shall be such date and if the same has not been submitted, the date on which the documents are completed shall be
the finalised application date.The documents are as follows:
• The form of application in the contents of which the ID data of the applicant are included,
• Representation of the design.

Is the registration of an industrial design in Turkey valid in the world?
Registration of any industrial design provides national protection to the holders. In other words, the protection through registration is valid only within the boundaries of the country of registration. Therefore, if it is claimed to protect the design in more than one country, it is the best way to file an application to the offices in each of the countries where the protection is to be claimed, separately. However, since it has been observed recently that any separate application to
each of the offices in such countries has led to several problems in terms of different application processes and use of different languages, there established systems which provide protection in more than one country through a single application to be made. For this specific purpose, The Hague Agreement Concerning International Deposit of Industrial Designs was put into effect in
our country on January 01, 2005.

What are the legal proceedings of and amendments to the application and registration of an industrial design? Should they be notified to the Institute?

It is possible to transfer the design application or the registered design to another person. In addition, the right of utilization obtained through design rights may be the subject of the license agreement, that is to say, it can be leased to another person by means of a contract. It is also possible to transfer the design rights to the successors through inheritance or to pledge the same. Such legal proceedings on the registered designs and the changes in address, title or such other particulars of the holder of the design rights should be entered into the industrial design records in order to make such procedures meaningful in the vicinity of the third parties. Therefore, it is of great importance to notify such procedures and changes to the Turkish Patent Institute.

What are the actions which can be deemed to be infringement of design rights and the penalties to be applied by the courts?
Imprisonment or fines shall be applied on those who make false statement in the fake capacity of design right holder or those although not granted any authorization, who remove the signs on the goods or packages which evidence the design protection or those who pretend that they are the applicant or the holder of any design right. Although it is already known or should have been known that there never existed any proprietary right, those who transfer, issue,
encumber or possess the licenses or any of the design rights or those who place any sign which may connote legally protected right onto the goods/packages/ commercial documents/ advertisements manufactured by themselves or any other person or put on sale in the case of expiration of the protection period or null design rights or cease of the rights arising from registered design are sentenced to imprisonment and fines. In addition to the imprisonment and fines, in the case of infringement to the design rights the place of businesses of those are closed not less than one year and they are prohibited from dealing with commercial activities within the stipulated period.