Turkish Patent Institute
- Section 1 General
- Section 2 Private and/or non-commercial use
- Section 3 Experimental use and/or scientific research
- Section 4 Preparation of medicines
- Section 5 Prior use
- Section 6 Use of articles on foreign vessels, aircrafts and land vehicles
- Section 7 Acts for obtaining regulatory approval from authorities
- Section 8 Exhaustion of patent rights
- Section 9 Compulsory licensing and/or government use
- Section 10 Exceptions and limitations related to farmers' and/or breeders' use of patented inventions
- Section 11 Other exceptions and limitations
Section 1: General
1. As background for the exceptions and limitations to patents investigated in this questionnaire, what is the legal standard used to determine whether an invention is patentable? If the standard for patentability includes provisions that vary according to the technology involved, please include examples of how the standard has been interpreted, if available. Please indicate the source of law (statutory and-or case law) by providing the relevant provisions and/or a brief summary of the relevant decisions.
Under the Turkish Patent Decree law, an invention which is novel, which surpass the State-of-the-Art and which is applicable in industry shall be protected by patents.(Art 5)
Correspondingly, please list exclusions from patentability that exist in your law. Furthermore, please provide the source of those exclusions from patentability if different from the source of the standard of patentability, and provide any available case law or interpretive decisions specific to the exclusions.
According to the article 6 of the Turkish Patent Decree Law, non-Patentable subject matter and Inventions are given below.
Article 6 :
The following, not being inventions as of their nature, shall remain outside the scope of this present Decree-Law :
a/ Discoveries, scientific theories, mathematical methods;
b/ Plans, methods, schemes/rules for performing mental acts, for conducting business/trading activity, and for playing games.
c/ Literary and artistic works, scientific works, creations having an esthetic characteristic, computer programs.
d/ Methods involving no technical aspect, for collecting, arranging, offering/presenting and transmitting information/data.
e/ Methods of diagnosis, therapy and surgery applying to human or animal body.
The provision under the paragraph one, subparagraph (e) of this present Article, shall apply neither to the products and compositions (per se) used in connection with these methods nor to their process of manufacturing.
Patent shall not be granted for inventions in respect of following subject matter.
a/ Inventions whose subject matter is contrary to the public order or to morality as is generally accepted.
b/ Plant and animal varieties/species or processes for breeding/plant or animal varieties/species, based mainly on biological grounds.
2. As background for the exceptions and limitations to patents investigated in this questionnaire, what exclusive rights are granted with a patent? Please provide the relevant provision in the statutory or case law. In addition, if publication of a patent application accords exclusive rights to the patent applicant, what are those rights?
Scope of Right Conferred By a Patent is given below according to the article 73 of the Turkish Patent Decree Law,
Article 73 :
The holder of a patent shall benefit from the right it confers without differentiating between the place of the invention, its field of technology and whether the concerned products are imported or of domestic production.
The holder of a patent is entitled to prevent following actions by third parties performed without permission:
a/ Production, sale, use, or importation of patented products or keeping them in possession for purposes other than for personal needs;
b/ Use of a process that is the subject matter of the patent;
c/ Offers made by third persons to others for the use of a patented process of which the use is known or should be known to be prohibited;
d/ Putting to sale or making use or importing or keeping in possession for any such purpose other than for personal needs of products directly obtained through the patented process.
3. Which exceptions and limitations does the applicable law provide in respect to patent rights (please indicate the applicable exceptions/limitations):
Private and/or non-commercial use;
Experimental use and/or scientific research;
Preparation of medicines;
Prior use;
Use of articles on foreign vessels, aircrafts and land vehicles;
Acts for obtaining regulatory approval from authorities;
Exhaustion of patent rights;
Compulsory licensing and/or government use.
Section 2: Private and/or non-commercial use
4. If the exception is contained in statutory law, please provide the relevant provision(s):
Art 75 (a) of the Turkish Patent Decree Law, acts of any non industrial or non commercial purpose and limited to private ends/aims; shall remain outside the scope of rights conferred by a patent :
5. If the exception is provided through case law, please cite the relevant decision(s) and provide its(their) brief summary:
None
6.(a) What are the public policy objectives for providing the exception?
(b) Where possible, please explain with references to the legislative history, parliamentary debates and judicial decisions:
[Note from the Secretariat: response was not provided.]
7. If the applicable law defines the concepts “non-commercial”, “commercial” and/or “private”, please provide those definitions by citing legal provision(s) and/or decision(s):
No definition
8. If there are any other criteria provided in the applicable law to be applied in determining the scope of the exception, please provide those criteria by citing legal provision(s) and/or decision(s):
None
9.-10.
[Note from the Secretariat: response was not provided.]
Section 3: Experimental use and/or scientific research
11. If the exception is contained in statutory law, please provide the relevant provision(s):
Art 75(b) of the Turkish Patent Decree Law provide that acts for experimental purposes shall remain outside the scope of rights conferred by a patent .
12. If the exception is provided through case law, please cite the relevant decision(s) and provide its(their) brief summary:
None
13.(a) What are the public policy objectives for providing the exception?
(b) Where possible, please explain with references to the legislative history, parliamentary debates and judicial decisions:
[Note from the Secretariat: response was not provided.]
14. Does the applicable law make a distinction concerning the nature of the organization conducting the experimentation or research (for example, whether the organization is commercial or a not-for-profit entity)? Please explain:
The Turkish Patent Decree Law does not make any distinction concerning the nature of the organization conducting the experimentation or research.
15. If the applicable law defines the concepts “experimental use” and/or “scientific research”, please provide those definitions by citing legal provision(s) and/or decision(s):
None
16. If the purpose of experimentation and/or research is relevant to the determination of the scope of the exception, please indicate what that purpose is:
Experimentation and/or research should aim to:
Every acts for non commercial experimental purposes, very broad definition without any restriction.
17. If any of the following criteria is relevant to the determination of the scope of the exception, please indicate:
Research and/or experimentation must be conducted on or relating to the patented invention (“research on”);
Research and/or experimentation must be conducted with or using the patented invention (“research with”).
Please explain by citing legal provision(s) and/or decision(s):
There is no further clarification of the exceptions provided.
There are no criteria relevant to the determination of the scope of the exception
18. If the commercial intention of the experimentation and/or research is relevant to the determination of the scope of the exception, please indicate whether the exception covers activities relating to:
A non-commercial purpose
19. If the applicable law makes a distinction between “commercial” and “non-commercial” purpose, please explain those terms by providing their definitions, and, if appropriate, examples. Please cite legal provision(s) and/or decision(s):
No legal provision explaining these terms by providing their definitions.
20. If the applicable law provides for other criteria to be applied in determining the scope of the exception, please describe those criteria. Please illustrate your answer by citing legal provision(s) and/or decision(s):
No further criteria applied.
21. Is the applicable legal framework of the exception considered adequate to meet the objectives sought (for example, are there any amendments to the law foreseen)? Please explain:
No further amendments are foreseen.