Ms. Janset, Unfortunately, Did Not Know That It Was Possible To Get A Patent For Software

He was absolutely right. He turned to Janset Hanım, who was sitting a few people ahead of her at the meeting table.

“Ms. Janset, I want you to address this issue once more. I hope you get a positive result.” Ms. Janset replied, “Okay sir, I will do my best.”

This request was not the first time the president had asked for it. The same issue was brought up almost every two months. The president would assign Ms. Janset. Ms. Janset would also get the opinion of the brand patent company they worked with again and compile a report. She would present it to the president.

Of course, every time, she would also get an expert opinion from a university faculty member confirming the opinion of the brand patent company they worked with, namely that software could not be patented, and strengthen her report. Thus, the report would become a full report, clearly worked on. In fact, these reports had become a formality

Ms. Janset was a woman who cared a lot about her career. She had always been focused on success in the companies she worked for. She had a very good image in business circles. She had a very good income. For example, she earned almost four times more than her husband, who had a respectable profession. Her social relationships were very good. He knew very well that “the work is done by people.”

After the meeting, Ms. Janset immediately started to prepare her report. She received opinions from the Trademark-Patent office where she had been working for a long time and from a faculty member of a private university. The opinions were still negative. She decided to research the subject one last time on the internet. She read many comments. The comments were negative. She was about to end her research when she came across an article by a trademark-patent company based in Ankara. She read the article carefully. They were saying that it was possible to get a patent for the software. She arranged an online meeting with the trademark-patent attorney who wrote the article, Avukat Ms. Yes, Avukat Ms. Janset was confused. She called the trademark-patent company and the faculty member they worked for again.

 However, both of them still had the same opinion. They felt the need to explain in more detail again;

Ms. Janset is convinced by the clear legal provision. The issue was not as simple as saying “come on, try it, lawyer lady”. It is risky to talk about the codes of the software to a foreigner. She has no intention of taking the risk. The lawyer lady from Ankara does not call again and prepares her report and presents it to the president

Months followed months. The patent issue was not brought up for a long time. All the work continued in its routine flow. However, as experience teaches us; “the deeper the calm, the bigger the storm that follows.”

The disaster happened suddenly. When Janset Hanım came to the office one morning, she found two resignation letters on her desk. Two important programmers of the encryption software projects had resigned.

It was like a joke. Why would they resign?; they were the highest-paid employees in the company. Then, by resigning, they had also given up their severance pay and other receivables. Why? Everyone was asking each other. Why did they resign?

The reason was soon understood. They had been transferred to one of the rival companies with very high transfer fees. The company was in turmoil. Suddenly, distrust prevailed. Everyone was suspicious of each other. Were there others involved?

It was certain that they had taken the codes of the software, which was the locomotive of the company, with them.

What was in store for the company?

Janset Hanıms head was going to explode on her . How could she not have sensed the intentions of these men? They must have given some clues. Janset Hanım was in a panic, even though she tried not to show it to anyone. How did I not notice, my God… How? She was angry with herself inwardly. She was arranging her desk inappropriately, walking around her room. She was thinking about how they were going to get through this crisis.

In a short time, the meeting call came. All the top executives had to be in the meeting room within 1 hour. Everyone was holding their breath, looking at the president. But

Surprise! The president looked very calm. As if he was unaware of what was happening, he was sitting at the head of the table, cool and confident, playing with two envelopes in his hand like playing cards…

Then, he started speaking in a calm tone. “Friends!! You all know what happened.” he continued. “I see you are nervous.” “I invite you all to calm down.” “Yes!! We were betrayed, that is true. However, the good thing about this is that the traitors among us have been exposed.” “What if they had continued to betray us without being exposed? What would we have done.”

“I think we are lucky,” he said. “On the other hand, you should not worry about what they took with them. I am happy to tell you now that our encryption program is protected.” She handed the large envelopes she was holding to Janset Hanım with a meaningful and hurt look. “Janset Hanım, can you please open the envelopes and show the contents to our friends?” Janset Hanım opened the envelopes with her hands shaking. Inside the envelopes were cardboards with meticulous writing on them and decorated with geometric shapes around the writing. Janset Hanım did not understand what they were at first. When she looked carefully, she saw that one of the cardboards had a Patent Certificate issued by the Turkish Patent and Trademark Office, and the other cardboard was a patent certificate obtained from the “EPO”, the superior patent institution of all European countries and providing valid protection in all European countries.

Ms. Janset felt her face heat up. The world fell apart. The president had taken the documents that she had reported as unobtainable. How? “President,” she stammered. The president smiled proudly.

“Yes, Ms. Janset, you understood correctly, you have the documents that provide protection to our software, in our country and all over the world…” Our lawyer who took the document sent the warnings to both our friends who left and the rival company through a notary this morning. I would like to see their faces when they receive the warnings. They cannot do anything against us, do not worry, our programs are completely under legal protection…”

“I expect the rival company to terminate the employment of the friends who betrayed us in a short time…” “So everything is under control…”“Everyone back to work,” he said, “Our company will continue on its path more dynamically, cleansed of harmful elements,” and stood up from the table with a smile. All the staff stood up with her, in a hurry. Except for one. Ms. Janset continued to sit in her place with a bright red face. She was slightly dizzy. She seemed to have lost interest in what was happening. She was almost in a dream world. She had never felt so bad and incompetent in her professional life. It is not known how much time had passed. Mrs. Janset pulled herself together a little. When she looked around, she realized that she was sitting alone in a huge meeting room. She pulled herself together slightly. She stood up. She left the meeting room with irregular steps. She thought she deserved to be fired. She kept repeating the words, “How did I make this mistake? What an idiot I am.” in her mind. How would she explain this situation to her husband? She entered the president’s office with a thousand and one thoughts in her mind. The president greeted her from his desk with a smile.

“We had a very useful meeting with the lawyer lady. I believed and trusted her.”

“I went to Ankara a few times to provide information and documents that would form the basis of the patent application about our software and to explain the features of our software.”

“The result is obvious; the lawyer lady was right. She concluded our patent applications with both TURKPATENT and WIPO positively. She received our documents. “

“I made an agreement with the lawyer so that she will be our company’s consultant, follow our lawsuits and follow our trademark-patent works from now on. The lawyer will be handling all of our legal works from now on..”

“I did not inform you about the process. Because I wanted to give you a good lesson. Since you acted like a bureaucrat, you deserved a good lesson. The business world does not need bureaucrats, but individuals who are open to innovation, are not afraid of taking risks, and do not just want change, but desire it, Ms. Janset

“The lesson you need to learn from this incident is that you should never ignore people with new ideas, you should always take them into consideration. I hope you have learned your lesson and I hope you don’t need to learn a new lesson.”

He looked at the beautiful woman’s bright red face in front of him, smiling into her anxious, fearful eyes. He pointed to his room with his index finger and said, “Come on! Get to work, march march.”

Janset Hanım suddenly became emotional. Her cheekbones tingled, her eyes filled with tears. She couldn’t speak. If she had, she would have burst into tears. She only looked at the man with grateful eyes and stammered, “Thank you, President…” She left the room. Her tears were not listening to her…

WHERE DID JANSET GO WRONG?

Janset Hanım did not try to understand what the expert trademark-patent attorney lawyer was saying. She could not break the traditional patterns that gave her a false confidence.

However, thanks to lawyers who develop creative ideas, the law can keep up with social development. In this sense, law is not a discipline that is stuck in the dogmatism of the laws and closed to development, but a social science that has to keep up with social development.

 Unfortunately, Janset Hanım did not know that software could be patented.

WHAT KIND OF PROTECTION DOES A PATENT PROVIDE?

First of all; If the product in question is produced, imitated or sold without the permission of the patent owner, the patent right is violated

If you think that an infringement of your patent is likely, you can prevent the possible infringement before it starts.

If there is an infringement of your right, you can immediately ensure that the infringement acts are stopped. You can request the removal of the existing infringement and compensation from the infringer for the material and moral damages you have suffered due to the infringement.

You can ensure that the products that constitute infringement or require punishment and the devices, machinery, etc. used exclusively in their production are seized.

You can request that you be granted property rights over the seized products, devices and machines. You can request that measures be taken to prevent the continuation of the infringement, especially the costs being borne by the infringer, the shapes of the seized products, devices and machines, etc. are changed, the brands on them are erased or, if unavoidable, the destruction of the seized products, devices and machines, etc. to prevent the infringement of industrial property rights.

If there is a legitimate reason or interest, you may request that the final decision be announced in full or in summary form in a daily newspaper or similar means, or that it be notified to the relevant parties, with the expenses being borne by the other party.

Persons who commit acts deemed to infringe on patent rights are obliged to compensate the rights holder for their damages.

In the event of infringement of patent rights, if the reputation of the industrial property right is damaged as a result of the improper use or production of the products or services subject to the right by the infringer, the supply of products produced in this way, or the improper marketing of such products, additional compensation may be requested for this reason.

Before filing a compensation lawsuit based on the claim of infringement of patent rights, the rights holder may request the court to decide that the documents related to the use of the industrial property right be submitted to the court by the indemnity liable in order to determine the evidence or the amount of damages suffered in the compensation lawsuit filed.

In addition;

 The damage suffered by the patent owner; includes the concrete losses actually suffered by the right owner and additionally the profits lost.

Lost profit; In other words; It refers to the potential income that the right owner could have obtained if there was no competition from the person who violated the industrial property right.

The net profit obtained by the person who violated the patent right (infringer) due to the infringement. If the person who violated the patent right had used this right lawfully with a license agreement, the license fee that he/she should have paid may also be requested from the infringer.

All these sanctions clearly show how important it is for Company (X) to obtain a patent for the software. I wish you days full of innovation and technological breakthroughs where our awareness in the field of Intellectual Property is increasing…

Attorney

 

Zehra GÜRBÜZ ÖNAL