Novelty Search In Designs And A Case Study

One of the revolutionary changes introduced by the new Industrial Property Code No. 6769 is that the novelty search for design applications can be now carried out ex officio by TURKPATENT, and applicants are granted the right to appeal to the decision.

A design, in the most classical sense, is defined as "the appearance of the whole or a part of a product resulting from the features of the line, contour, color, shape, material or texture of the product itself or its ornamentation". Designs can benefit from the right of registration and the protection granted by this right, as long as they are new and have distinctive character. Novelty means that a product subject to a design should not be released to the public one year prior to the date of application. In other words, designs which have less than one year between their application date and release date are considered new and included in the scope of protection. No search could be conducted by TURKPATENT in design