Turkey has accepted the universal novelty system. A design should be considered novel if this design is not presented to the public all over the world within 12 months of grace period. Unlike some countries novelty inside the boundaries of the territory is not enough for protection.
Turkish Patent Office is the competent authority for industrial design applications.
What is a design?
According to Decree Law No: 554,
`design` means the entirety of the various features such as lines, color, texture, shape, sound, elasticity, material or other characteristics perceived by the human senses of the appearance of the whole or part of a product or its ornamentation. Protection shall be granted to a design which is new and has an individual character.
Designs of products which are parts of complex items shall be protected if and when the design of the part itself is new and has individual character. A design shall be considered new if before the date of reference no identical design has been made available to the public in the world. Designs differing only in immaterial details shall be deemed to be identical. To make available to the public shall cover of all actions of sale, use, publication, publicity, exhibiting, or such similar activities.
A design shall be understood to have an individual character if the overall impression it creates on the informed user is significantly different from the overall impression created on the same user by any design referred to in the second paragraph of this Article. In order for any other design to be compared for the purposes of determining the individual character of a design;
In the assessment of the individual character, the emphasis of evaluation shall be on the common features of the designs and the degree of freedom of the designer in developing the design shall also be taken into consideration