Utility Model processes;
Filing: Utility model shall not protect the inventions in respect of following subject matter:
- Chemical or biological substance or chemical or biological methods or the products obtained as a result of these methods,
- Substance relevant to pharmacy or methods relevant to pharmacy or the products obtained as a result of these methods,
- Biotechnological inventions,
- Inventions relevant to methods or the products obtained as a result of methods.
Description, claims, abstract and the figures (if any) can be submitted in one of the official languages of the countries which are a party of The Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property or The Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (“TRIPS”) or which implements Principle of Reciprocity while applying the application before the Turkish Patent and Trademark Office.
However, Turkish translation of the set of description must be submitted to the Office within 2 months after the application was filed.
Formal Examination: After filing, formal examination is conducted. In the formal examination; forms, the application fees, necessary documents are checked and it is controlled that if the claims are suitable for being utility model (namely if there is a technical subject or not).
Search: Utility model applications must be sent to the search within 2 months starting from the notification date of the positive formal examination decision.
Publication: After receiving the search report, utility models are published in the Official Patent Bulletin for 3 months. Applicant can object to content of the search report along with the related documents and third parties can declare their opinions within 3 months after the publication date.
Office evaluates the search report along with the opposition of the applicant and opinions of third parties, if any. If the Office decides the utility model is approved, informs the applicant and publishes the decision before Official Bulletin.
If it is decided that some changes in the application must be done by applicant upon evaluation of the search report, the applicant is informed and requested to make the changes within 2 months after notification date. If the conducted changes are accepted, utility model is approved and the decision is informed to the applicant and published before Bulletin.
In the situation that the required changes were not done or the conducted changes are not approved by the Office, the application is evaluated as withdrawn. This decision is informed to the applicant and published before the Bulletin.
Certificate: After publication of the utility model is approved, upon applicant’s request and the registration fee is paid, the prepared certificate is sent to the applicant. This certificate is valid for 10 years as long as its annual fees are being paid in due time.