Employee Inventions in Türkiye: Who Owns What Your Team Creates

An engineer on your R&D team develops a new solution at work. Who owns it? Many companies assume that paying a salary settles the question. Turkish law does not: employee inventions are governed by a dedicated regime imposing obligations on both sides.

Service inventions and free inventions

A service invention is one the employee makes in the course of the duties owed to the undertaking, or substantially based on the undertaking’s experience and work, during the employment relationship. Everything else is a free invention, which belongs in principle to the inventor. The dividing line turns on which knowledge and resources produced the invention.

Notification and claim

An employee who makes a service invention must notify the employer in writing without delay. The employer may then claim full or partial rights; a full claim transfers the rights and triggers an obligation to pay the employee reasonable compensation, with the tariff and an arbitration route set out in regulation.

If the employer does not claim in time, the invention becomes a free invention and the employee may file, assign or exploit it freely. This is where silence becomes expensive.

Practical checklist

• Put an invention clause in employment contracts covering notification, claims and compensation — clauses that strip the employee of statutory rights will not hold.
• Operate an invention disclosure form so that deadlines can be evidenced.
• Keep R&D records: lab notebooks, version history, project files.
• Include invention matters in exit procedures.
• Handle contractors and agencies separately — employment rules do not apply to them, so assignment must be express.

Separate rules apply to inventions made at higher education institutions and in publicly funded projects, and should be reflected in university-industry agreements.

See also our article on filing a patent, or talk to us about invention management.

General information only, not legal advice.