Discount for SMEs on First Patent Applications, 50% for AI

What changed?

The Turkish Patent and Trademark Office amended the 2026 fee schedule with Communiqué No. 2026/2, published in Official Gazette No. 33416 dated October 31, 2026. According to the Office's news item, two new discounts apply:

• A 75 percent discount on the application, search report, and examination report fees for the first patent applications of SMEs filing a patent application for the first time.
• A 50 percent discount on the urgent search report preparation fees of patent applications in the field of artificial intelligence that fall within IPC class G06N.

According to the Office's statement, applicants who meet the conditions can benefit from the discounted fees for the relevant transactions they carry out through EPATS, TÜRKPATENT's electronic filing system.

Who can benefit?

According to the relevant lines in the schedule, the discounted fee applies to the first applications of legal entities that are in the SME enterprise category and hold an SME Qualification Certificate. Natural persons and companies without SME status are outside the scope of these lines; however, there is already a separate low rate for search and examination reports for natural persons and universities (up to 10 and 100 applications, respectively).

How did the amounts change?

The discount looks small on the application item because 522,30 TL of the 620 TL is a statutory duty, and the discount applies only to the fee and VAT portion (from 97,70 TL to 24,43 TL); for the search and examination reports, the discount is reflected directly in the total amount. Based on the amounts in the table, the total of the three items falls by about 71 percent.

In the field of artificial intelligence (class G06N), the urgent search report fee is 5.200 TL instead of the 10.400 TL in the general rate.

Exemption for competition applications

The same communiqué also provides exemptions from certain fees for applications made within the scope of competitions organized by TÜRKPATENT: the patent application, search report, and examination report fees, and the design application, additional design, and publication fees. The scope of the exemption depends on the terms of each competition; check the rules of the competition you plan to enter on the Office's page.

Practical notes for SMEs

• Prepare the certificate in advance: Holding an SME Qualification Certificate is a condition checked at the time of application; make sure the certificate is valid and up to date.
• Plan for the first-application condition: The discount is for the "first application"; deciding which of your inventions to file first can be a strategic decision.
• Do not forget the annual fees: The discount covers the application, search, and examination stages; the annual fees payable over the life of the patent and other transactions are the same as in the general rate.
• Consider a utility model as well: If your invention is eligible, it may involve a shorter process and lower cost; to choose, see our guide patent or utility model?

For the full costs of a patent, you can review our patent registration service page and our 2026 fee schedule guide.

Sources

• TÜRKPATENT — Patent Discount for SMEs and Artificial Intelligence Projects (October 31, 2026)
• Official Gazette, October 31, 2026, issue 33416 — Communiqué No. 2026/2
• TÜRKPATENT — Patent Transaction Fees

The information was compiled on November 14, 2026; for details of the conditions, see the current communiqué and the official table.