367 INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY LAW Protection and Registration of Designs* Zeynep Ezgi Yanarateş Within the scope of Industrial Property Law No. 6769 (“IPC”), the visual features of a product, in other words, its design, may be protected. Today, as designs also have marketing, advertising and competition elements, their registration has gained more importance. Design right gives the owner the right to prevent the unauthorized and unfair use of the design by third parties. In this context, this newsletter covers how design is defined in the IPC, the conditions of design protection, its duration, and the cases outside the scope of the protection, and the rights granted to unregistered designs. Regarding the registration of designs, the IPC, Regulation on the Implementation of the Industrial Property Law No. 6769 published in the Official Gazette dated 24.04.2017, and the Design Review Guide prepared by the Turkish Patent and Trademark Office (“Office”) published in 2020 provide guidance. What is a Design? Article 55 of the IPC defines design as “The appearance of the whole or a part of a product resulting from the features of the line, contour, colour, shape, material or texture of the product, itself, or its ornamentation.” On the other hand, product means: • any industrial or handcraft item (such as a chair or decorative plants); • a joint product or its parts (such as an automobile and wheel); * Article of June, 2021
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MjUzNjE=