The story of American inventor Samuel Morse, who ushered in the first era of global communications, differs from that of many other inventors. Morse was primarily a professional painter and didn’t begin his career in the field of exact sciences. This leads one to wonder about a story that began with portraits and extended to the telegraph. Let’s start today’s topic with this story.

Morse traveled to Washington in 1825 as he was commissioned to draw a portrait. It was during this visit that the horseback postal service from New Haven delivered bad news to Morse. Who knows how long it took for the message to arrive. Although Morse left as soon as he received the letter informing him that his wife’s health had taken a serious turn for the worse, he was only able to visit her at the grave.

This painful experience led Morse to start thinking of how a faster system of correspondence could be found for people faced with emergency situations. Morse, who had dedicated himself to the study of electromagnetism in the 1830s, finally developed an electromagnetic telegraph.

Due to a series of problems, the inventor’s efforts to see his invention gain acceptance in his own country were in vain. Following this, some intermediaries tried to make the Ottoman Palace aware of Morse’s invention.

The result of this intermediation was that a professor presented this invention to Sultan Abdülmecit I. The sultan, who tested the telegraph by communicating between various rooms of the palace, was very excited by this, thinking it would be of vital significance for the army.

The Ottoman Empire did not let this invention, which led to the creation of the world’s largest telegraph network, go unrewarded. The sultan, who was very impressed by this invention, sent Morse a letter of congratulations along with a diamond medal of honor. A Google search of Morse’s images shows pictures of Morse wearing this medal on his lapel.

Now to the interesting bit. Records show that apart from the medal, the sultan also sent Morse a letters patent. This letters patent, according to the records, was the world’s first patent granted to Morse’s telegraph. Therefore, the first patent which played a critical role in the spread of Morse’s invention was granted by Abdülmecit I at the old Beylerbeyi Palace in 1847.

This example tells us the practice of registering patents and trademarks have existed in our country since Ottoman times. Did you know that one of the first laws regulating trademarks was the Alamet-i Farika Nizamnamesi in 1871? The first brand to be registered during Ottoman times was Hacı Bekir, which still exists and brings a smile to our faces.

There are countless detailed stories about intellectual copyrights dating back to Ottoman times in our country, but let’s now link it to the present context.

We constantly speak about our development targets and say technology is a prerequisite for growth, and Research and Development and innovation are prerequisites for technology. It needs to be stated, however, that for this chain of events to result in success, the key lies in transforming this R&D and innovation into economic worth.

This brings us to the topic of intellectual and industrial copyrights with regard to the critically significant issue of commercialization. This is because these rights that comprise categories such as patents, trademarks and industrial designs are the bedrock of the process of value transformation.

This makes it crucial for us to comprehend our situation in regard to intellectual copyrights, which is an essential component of global competition. The World Intellectual Property Organization’s (WIPO) 2014 report published last December gives us an idea. Let’s cast a quick look at the indicators.

The good news first: According to the report which is based on statistics from 2013, we are ranked third in the world with a 10.3 percent increase in the number of applications for industrial design, following Ukraine and Iran. We rank fourth in the world in terms of the number of applications made. We rank fifth is terms of applications made to register brands. This is very heartening…

But when it comes to patents, which are very significant in terms of technological inventions, we rank 17th. Patent applications in the world grew by 9 percent in 2013 reaching 2.57 million. While China and the United States lead this rapidly growing trend of recent years, Turkey remains in a weak position given the overall picture.

Furthermore, high-income countries take a bigger share of the pie. However, a shift toward the developing world can also be seen. India, Brazil and Iran are some of the developing countries ahead of us…

Of course we can’t deny that there has been an increase in momentum with regard to patents in Turkey in recent years, aided by the support provided in this respect. The WIPO reports, too, attest to this. But the current picture also shows that it is a must for us to act a lot more quickly in regard to patents, which serve commerce.

How can we ensure stronger patent-related activities? I am of the opinion that the answer lies in creating variety, increasing motivation and making it easier to take action. I would like to share some of my observations:

1-Patent studies to increase national diversity and cultural growth should continue at full steam. Information about incentive systems should be made more widely available.

2- Distinguishing between patents and know-how is important. There should be a review even if there is an invention that involves a minor improvement but could result in a patent.

3- Regulations that impede joint R&D projects and lead to intellectual rights conflicts need to be reviewed, and bottlenecks need to be urgently addressed.

4- While registering patents, inventors should be supported by proxies who are “experts in the field” to enable progress.

5- Relevant public institutions in particular should speed up their mechanisms for dealing with paperwork and train their staff in this regard.

6- During the patent process that requires patience, inventors can become disaffected due to heavy workloads, loss of interest and change of job. Measures definitely need to be taken so that inventors are not disaffected as it is vital to the development of the patent process.

7- Registered patents should not be shelved in order for efforts to not go to waste. Patents become meaningless if they cannot be implemented, and undivided focus should be placed on the commercialization process of patents.

There is a lot that needs to be done. Growth is not easy.

I wish you a nice weekend…

twitter.com/drhaticekarahan