Dear clients, intellectual property rights and trademarks protection which have an important place in business life, are protected by various acts and regulations in our country. Having the rights as a first practitioner/founder in the fields of industry, technology, and commerce and using these rights and selling them will be significant for these organizations financially. Texts, figures, signs that allow organizations to be recognized in the market and distinguish them from other organizations are defined as a trademark. The protection of trademark rights also has an important place in commercial rights and will prevent imitation and will be able to impose sanctions against organizations which earn economic benefits with imitating themselves.

Intellectual and Industrial Property rights include patents and utility models, trademarks, geographical indications, industrial designs and topographies of integrated circuits. Owner of intellectual property rights can use and protect own rights as follow :

• Owner of the rights can use the invention
• Owner of the rights can allow others to use the invention, may sell the license
• Claim rights against unauthorized use of his / her invention, and may take legal action to prevent unauthorized use.

Turkish Patent and Trademark Office is the only authorized authority to license patents in our country. Applications are applied by hand, by mail or online. Patent applications are valid within the country, If the owner wants to protect own rights at international level, the owner must do the international patent application. With the international conventions that our country is a party to this protection has different standards compared to our systems. The applicant should be careful of these national and international patent application differences. International patent and trademark applications can be made from each country individually or through PCT, EPC, CTM conventions and Madrid Protocol in other countries and regions.

Trademarks must be registered for protecting their intellectual property. Turkish Patent and Trademark Office is the authorized office for the registration. The protection period of the registered trademark is ten years from the date of application. This period is renewed in periods of ten years. The renewal request must be made by the trademark owner within six months prior to the end of the period of protection, and the renewal fee has to be submitted to the Authority within the same period. The provisions on infringement of trademark rights include various punishments and judicial fines as well as criminal sanctions such as the seizure of imitated products.