Under the Industrial Property Law No. 6769 in Türkiye, the term of protection for a patent is twenty years from the filing date, while the term for a utility model is ten years. These periods are not extendable. Annual fees required for maintaining a patent application or a granted patent must be paid throughout the protection period, starting from the end of the second year following the filing date and continuing annually on their respective due dates.
If an annual fee is not paid on time, it may still be paid within a six-month grace period, subject to an additional fee. If the fee is not paid within this period, the patent right expires as of the due date of that fee. A notification of expiration of the patent right is issued and published in the Bulletin. If a compensatory fee is paid within two months from the notification date, the patent right is re-validated as of the payment date and this is also published in the Bulletin.
Before the Turkish Patent and Trademark Office, annual fees can be paid through the EPATS system without submitting any documents. The annual fee for a given year may be paid at any time within that calendar year. For example, an annual fee due on 28 October 2024 can be paid via EPATS as of January 2024.
Before the European Patent Office (EPO), annual fees for a European patent application become payable from the end of the second year following the filing date and must be paid to the EPO each year until the validation stage.
At the EPO, annual fees may be paid no earlier than three months before the due date. Payments made even one day earlier than this period are not accepted on the grounds of “early payment” and are automatically refunded.
Where the due date of an annual fee falls on any day within a given month, payment can be made without surcharge until the last day of that month. If payment is not made by the end of that month, a six-month additional period applies, during which a surcharge of 50% of the official fee is payable.
Once a European patent is granted and validated in designated countries, annual fees are no longer paid to the EPO but must instead be paid separately in each validated country on their respective due dates. Official fees are paid in the relevant national currencies to maintain protection. For instance, if validation is carried out in seven countries, annual fees must be paid in each of those countries.
Under the Unitary Patent system, the payment of annual fees does not differ until the European patent is granted. Annual fees become payable from the end of the second year following the filing date and continue to be paid annually to the EPO until the grant and validation stage.
As with the EPO system, if the due date falls on any day within a month, payment can be made without surcharge until the end of that month. If not paid until the last day of the given month, a six-month grace period applies, with a surcharge of 50% of the official fee.
Following grant, if unitary effect is requested instead of, or in addition to, the classical European patent validation system, a single annual fee payment will be sufficient for all countries participating in the Unitary Patent system.
At first glance, the fact that annual fees under the Unitary Patent system are paid as a single payment rather than separately in each country appears to offer a more practical and cost-effective solution. However, the nature of the Unitary Patent system, its operation, and its differences from the classical European patent validation system should be carefully assessed before making a decision.
The Agreement on a Unified Patent Court was signed in February 2013 by 25 European Union member states, excluding Spain, Poland, and Croatia. Following the United Kingdom’s withdrawal from the European Union, this number decreased to 24. Currently, 17 countries have completed their ratification processes and participate in the system: Germany, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, the Netherlands, Italy, Sweden, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Portugal, and Slovenia. Accordingly, if the Unitary Patent system is chosen, a single annual fee payment will apply for these 17 countries. However, it is not possible to selectively abandon protection on a country-by-country basis in later years.
Although paying a single annual fee may seem advantageous, this may not always be the case. For example, if protection is sought in only two countries, requesting unitary effect may result in higher overall costs, and the single-payment structure may become a disadvantage rather than an advantage.
In addition, decisions of the Unified Patent Court are binding across all participating member states. Therefore, if a negative decision is issued in one of the 17 countries, it will have effect in all other participating countries, which may create a disadvantage for the right holder. In contrast, under the classical European patent validation system, an adverse court decision in one country affects only that country, and the patent may continue to be maintained in other countries.
