On March 16, 2015, in collaboration with Turkey's Office for Harmonization in the Internal Market ("OHIM"), the Turkish Patent Institute ("TPI") made its industrial design data publicly available through the Designview search tool.
What is Designview?
Designview is a centralized online access point for viewing design information registered in a participating country's national patent office, presented in a unique, standardized format. The design search tool is based on the data of participating national offices, the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) and OHIM.
Since the launch of Designview in 2012, the tool has conducted more than 920,000 searches from 139 countries, with users from Spain, Germany and the UK among the most frequent visitors. With TPI participation, there are now 28 participating countries, providing access to more than 4.1 million designs -- 450,000 from TPI alone.
Conclusion
Through Designview, anyone can conduct free-of-charge design research, accessing designs belonging to OHIM, any participating national office and WIPO. With this online tool, designers seeking to file an application to protect an industrial design have the ability to examine their designs' novelty, and research existing markets in Europe as well as market trends.
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