Protecting Software in Türkiye: Copyright, Secrecy and Contract

Software is protected in Türkiye as a literary and scientific work, automatically and without registration. The scope of that protection, however, is narrower than most software companies assume.

What is and is not covered

Source and object code, and preparatory design material, are protected. Ideas, algorithms as such, business logic and functional concepts are not. A competitor who studies your product and writes its own code to deliver the same function generally cannot be stopped on copyright grounds: copyright prevents copying, not independent re-creation.

Ownership is usually a contract question

• Employees: statute provides a regime, but the employment contract should still state the scope expressly.
• Contractors and agencies: employment rules do not apply. Without a written assignment of economic rights, paying the invoice does not transfer ownership.
• Founders: code written before incorporation is rarely assigned to the company — the single most common gap found in investment due diligence.

Open source obligations

Nearly all modern software embeds open source components, each with licence conditions. Some require only attribution; others require derivative works to be distributed under the same licence, which can force disclosure of your own source. Maintain a component inventory and licence compliance record.

Trade secrecy as an alternative

For server-side software never delivered as code, secrecy may protect more effectively than copyright — but only where confidentiality is actually implemented through access controls, agreements and exit procedures.

See our articles on trade secrets and employee inventions, or contact us.

General information only, not legal advice.