Design Registration in Türkiye and the Three-Year Unregistered Right

The appearance of a product — its shape, pattern, colour or ornamentation — is the subject of design law. Türkiye offers two layers of protection. A registered design is protected for five years from the filing date, renewable in five-year terms up to twenty-five years. Without registration, protection lasts three years from the date the design was first made available to the public in Türkiye, and is considerably narrower (Article 69).

Two conditions: novelty and individual character

A design must be new — no identical design made available anywhere in the world before the filing date — and must produce on the informed user an overall impression that differs from earlier designs. The designer’s degree of freedom is taken into account: where technical constraints dictate the form, smaller differences may suffice.

The twelve-month grace period

Disclosing a design before filing normally destroys novelty, but the law provides a safety net: a disclosure by the designer or their successor is disregarded if the application is filed within twelve months of it. Showing a product at a trade fair, publishing it in a catalogue or listing it online therefore does not close the door immediately — but the clock has started, and late filings routinely fail because of the applicant’s own disclosure.

Registered versus unregistered, in practice

• Scope: a registered design stops any use producing the same overall impression, regardless of whether the other party knew of your design. The unregistered right essentially protects against copying, and independent creation is a defence.
• Term: five years renewable to twenty-five, against three years from first disclosure.
• Burden of proof: a certificate with a date and defined scope, against having to prove when and how the design was first disclosed in Türkiye.
• Enforcement: customs recordals, marketplace complaints and interim injunctions move far faster with a registration in hand.

The filing itself: images decide the scope

After formal examination the Office assesses novelty, publishes accepted designs in the Bulletin, and third parties may oppose within three months of publication. The single most consequential technical detail is the image set: the scope of protection is read from the views you file, so a face that was never shown is a face that is not protected.

Layered protection is normal

The same product can be protected as a design, as a shape trademark where it is distinctive, by copyright where it is artistic, and by a patent or utility model where it embodies a technical solution. These rights do not exclude one another, and the right strategy is usually a combination rather than a single filing.

See our design registration service or get in touch with your product images.

This article is general information and not legal advice. Novelty and individual character must be assessed for your specific product.