In Turkey, the calculation of profit from an invention and the compensation to be paid to the employee in service inventions involves a structured approach aimed at ensuring fairness and incentivizing innovation. Typically, in Turkey when an employee makes an invention during the course of their employment, the employer is entitled to benefit (profit) from the invention. However, the Turkish Industrial Property Code (No: 6769) stipulates that employees are entitled to compensation in their salary for their service inventions. This compensation is determined based on various factors such as the economic value of the invention, the role and contribution of the employee, and the commercial success derived from the invention. Employers are obligated to fairly assess the monetary value of the invention and provide equitable compensation to the employee, reflecting their contribution to the innovation. Additionally, the law mandates that the compensation should be agreed upon between the parties or determined by the court if an agreement cannot be reached. This framework ensures that both employers and employees are appropriately incentivized to foster a culture of innovation while protecting the rights and interests of inventors in Turkey.
EXAMPLE 1 – According to Article 13 of this Regulation, the calculation of the profit in Turkey obtained from the invention by comparison method is exemplified below:
For a product with a sales price of 1000 TL in an enterprise producing construction machinery, assume that the contribution of the invention to the sales price of the product is 10 TL and that 1 million units of products containing the invention are sold. In the calculation of the profit from the invention; instead of 1000 TL, which is the sales price of the product, the amount found by multiplying 10 TL, which is the contribution of the invention to the sales price of the product, by the number of products sold (10 TL X 1 million units) is taken as basis. The profit obtained from the sale of the inventive product is calculated as 10 million TL.
EXAMPLE 2 – The calculation of the amount to be paid to the employee according to Article 21 of this Regulation is exemplified below:
In the case where an engineer working in the research and development department in an enterprise producing construction machinery realises an invention in accordance with the instructions given by the employer, for the year when the net minimum wage is 1.400 TL, if the profit obtained from the invention is 10 million TL, the amount to be paid to the employee is calculated as follows:
a) Firstly, the group to which the service invention belongs is determined as the third group for the given example.
b) Then, the amount of the net minimum wage of the earnings obtained from the invention
– For the part up to 1.000 times up to 1.400.000 TL; 0,0020
– For the 5.600.000 TL portion between 1.000 times and 5.000 times; 0,0015
– For the 3.000.000 TL portion between 5.000 times and 10.000 times; 0,0012
coefficients will be determined. The amount to be paid calculated using these coefficients is as follows.
– 0,0020 times of 1.400.000 TL earnings: 2.800 TL
– 0,0015 times of 5.600.000 TL earnings: 8.400 TL
– 0,0012 times the earnings of 3.000.000TL: 3.600 TL
TOTAL : 14.800 TL.
