Patent and Utility Model

The patent process begins with a patent search that reveals whether the invention has previously been disclosed to the public. We assess whether your invention meets the novelty and inventive step criteria, then prepare the application file containing the technical description, claims and drawings. During examination we respond to the office's observations and follow the process through to grant.

A patent or utility model grants its owner a monopoly to produce and market the invention. A patented product cannot be commercially manufactured or sold by others without the owner's permission. This protection enables you to realise the return on your R&D investment and to turn your invention into revenue through licensing.

For applicants seeking international protection, the PCT (Patent Cooperation Treaty) offers a significant advantage. The PCT opens the path to protection in numerous member countries through a single international application and grants the applicant additional time, from the first filing date, to enter the national phases. At Yedi Kıta Patent, with our representatives worldwide, we handle your PCT and country-specific international patent applications.

With our 20 years of experience, we stand by you in every technical and legal stage, from drafting the invention in a registrable form to opposition and invalidity actions. We protect your invention against imitation attempts through legal monitoring.

Questions and Answers: The Patent and Utility Model Process

How does a patent application proceed?

After filing, the Office conducts a formal examination; a search report is requested and issued, listing the prior art relevant to your invention. The application is published in the 18th month from the filing date (earlier publication may be requested). Substantive examination then assesses patentability, and if the outcome is positive a grant decision is issued.

What is the difference between the search report and the examination report?

The search report lists the prior-art documents closest to your invention; the examination report assesses how those documents affect novelty and inventive step. You have the right to file observations in response to each report.

How does a utility model differ from a patent?

For utility models a search report is issued but there is no substantive examination stage, which makes the route faster and more economical. Protection lasts 10 years for utility models and 20 years for patents; both are maintained by paying annual fees.

What if I disclose my invention before filing?

Public disclosure before filing can destroy novelty. Where the disclosure originates from the inventor, a grace period may apply under certain conditions; the safest course, however, is to file before any disclosure.

How do I obtain protection abroad?

The PCT system grants additional time to enter national phases with a single application, while a European patent provides protection in numerous countries through the EPO. With our representatives worldwide, we manage both routes.

Can I file the application myself - is an attorney mandatory?

It depends on the type of filing. For a Turkish patent application, applicants domiciled or with a place of business in Türkiye may file themselves; for applicants not established in Türkiye, a Turkish patent attorney is mandatory. For a European patent application, you may file yourself if you are domiciled or established in an EPC member state; otherwise a European patent attorney is mandatory. For PCT applications the receiving office is decisive: where the Turkish Patent and Trademark Office is chosen as receiving office, an applicant of Turkish origin may file directly or work with a Turkish patent attorney. One more point: even where an attorney is not mandatory, a patent application demands technical and legal expertise - a poorly prepared filing can lead to losses of rights that are difficult to remedy.

Questions and Answers: Working with an Attorney

Why is working with a patent attorney recommended even when representation is not mandatory?

Because the fate of a patent application is largely decided by its first text. Once filed, no new content may be added due to the prohibition on extending subject-matter; a specification that was drafted incompletely or incorrectly can rarely be rescued later into a strong scope of protection. In this technically and legally demanding process, a flawed filing can lead to losses of rights that are difficult to remedy.

Questions and Answers: Priority

What is priority and for how long can it be claimed?

Priority is the right to carry the date of your first filing into your later applications: within 12 months of the first filing for patents and utility models, applications you file for the same invention in other countries benefit from the earlier date. An important detail: once the first application has received a date and number, it continues to give rise to priority even if it is later withdrawn, refused or invalidated.

Can multiple priorities be claimed?

Yes. A single application may claim several priorities from different dates and countries; in that case different claims may rely on different priority dates. By contrast, chaining priorities - claiming priority from an application that itself claims priority - is as a rule not possible; the period always runs from the first filing. In multi-priority files, matching claims to dates is legally delicate and should be structured with care.

Questions and Answers: The Specification and Sufficiency of Disclosure

Can I keep parts of my invention secret in the specification?

No. The specification must be written clearly enough for a person skilled in the art to carry out the invention. Deliberately withholding a critical detail can trigger an insufficiency objection and lead to refusal. If keeping part of the invention confidential is commercially essential, protecting that part as a trade secret instead of a patent is usually the sounder strategy.

What if I urgently need to file before all technical details are settled?

First assess the nature of the gap: secondary gaps surrounding the invention can be filled by an experienced attorney, whereas gaps in the essence of the invention can only be completed with the inventor's input. If essential gaps cannot be closed, filing with the existing content is still possible, but it must be understood as a deliberate risk - since nothing can be added later, whatever essence is missing will be missing from the protection too.

Questions and Answers: Publication

When is my patent application published - does it stay confidential until then?

Yes. Your application is kept confidential for 18 months from the filing date (or priority date, where claimed) and is published in the official bulletin at the end of that period; earlier publication can be requested. Upon publication, third parties may inspect your file - which serves both as the public announcement of your protection and as formal notice to your competitors.

What is the legal significance of the publication date?

The publication date determines how strongly a document can be used against other applications. Documents published before your filing date are evidence against both novelty and inventive step. Applications filed before yours but published afterwards can be raised against novelty only; they play no role in the inventive-step debate. This distinction is critical to file strategy.

Questions and Answers: Novelty and Public Disclosure

I shared my invention with a company without an NDA - is novelty at risk?

There is a risk, but not every disclosure automatically counts as making the information public. In practice, an implied duty of confidentiality may be recognised in settings such as offer negotiations, joint R&D, subcontracting relationships and prototype testing; documents stamped confidential also evidence the intent. Still, the safest course is a written NDA before any disclosure - and, where possible, filing before sharing at all.

Does a product on the market always destroy the novelty of a similar invention?

Not always. The externally visible features of a product are considered disclosed by its sale and count as evidence against novelty. However, internal features that can only be established through special test conditions or laboratory analysis may not be regarded as having been made available to the public. The mere presence of a product on the market is therefore not decisive; what matters is which technical features were actually accessible.

Can information published on the internet be used against novelty?

Yes - internet content constitutes evidence against novelty as long as its publication date can be reliably established. What matters is that the information was accessible before the filing date; it is irrelevant whether anyone actually accessed it, the mere possibility of access suffices. Where content was restricted to a closed circle, its evidentiary value becomes debatable.

Questions and Answers: Inventive Step and Claims

How is inventive step assessed?

The assessment follows a structured method: first, the closest prior-art document is identified; then the features distinguishing your invention from it, and the technical effect those differences deliver, are established; from this, the technical problem solved by the invention is defined. The final question is whether the skilled person, looking at the prior art, not merely could have arrived at the solution but would have. This could/would distinction is the heart of inventive step.

Why do claims matter so much, and how should they be drafted?

Because it is the claims, not the description, that draw the boundaries of your protection. Claims must contain all essential features of the invention and define the solution you wish to protect with clarity. A common mistake is drafting a claim in terms of the result to be achieved (for example merely 'a device consuming less energy'): such claims raise clarity objections, produce unexpected complications in novelty analysis, and weaken the certificate where essential features are missing. A well-constructed claim set is, quite literally, the commercial value of the patent.

Questions and Answers: Amendments and Post-Grant Opposition

Can I amend or add to the text after filing?

You may amend, but you may not add new content: every amendment must find basis in the original application as filed - its description, claims and drawings. This is the prohibition on added subject-matter. The abstract does not count as basis, and indirect routes such as measuring dimensions from technical drawings do not, as a rule, provide basis either. This is why the first text should be drafted to contain, from the outset, every fallback position you might later need.

Can a granted patent be opposed?

Yes. Three main grounds can be raised in post-grant opposition: that the invention fails the patentability requirements (novelty, inventive step), that it is not disclosed clearly enough to be carried out, and that subject-matter was added during prosecution. A wrongly granted patent can misdirect commercial decisions and lives under the risk of invalidation - which makes opposition an important tool both for stress-testing your own certificate and for policing competitors' filings.

Questions and Answers: Exceptions to Patentability

Are methods of diagnosis and treatment patentable?

Methods of surgery, diagnosis and therapy practised on the human or animal body are not patentable - an exception designed to let medical practitioners exercise their profession free of patent constraints. The exception is, however, limited to methods: medicines, medical devices, and processes for manufacturing prostheses and artificial limbs are patentable. Methods applied outside the body (for instance on extracted blood or tissue samples) and certain cosmetic procedures may also fall outside the bar; for medicines, first and second medical use claims offer an important route to protection.