Fending Off Tactical Patent Invalidation Actions

Filing patent invalidation actions for tactical purposes, such as jeopardizing patent infringement actions of patent owners and gaining time by complicating the infringement proceedings, has become a common strategy of infringers in recent years. With this strategy, the parties infringing the patent may cause the patent owner to suffer due to the inability to enforce their patent as they are entitled to during the limited protection period of 20 years, even if the invalidity claims do not have a solid basis and they are filed on a 'try your luck' basis.

In a recent infringement action in Türkiye, the defendant company responded to the action with a very brief defence comprising a couple of paragraphs, stating that it does not infringe the patent and the patent should be invalidated. The defence omitted any grounds or evidence for the invalidation demand. In this sense, the defendant did not concretise their case within the scope of the Article 297 of Code of Civil