Investigating the awareness of industrial property rights in medium and large-scale furniture companies

Intellectual property rights play substantial role in the fields in which intellectual efforts are in question, so as to protect the right owners' rights and to enable the progress of the field. Basicly, intellectual property rights are divided into two; of which the first is the Copyright. Copyrights provide an automatic protection for the right owners via the Law, number 5846, in our country. The other branch of the intellectual property rights are the industrial property rights, in which the rights such as patents, utility models, trademarks, designs and geographical indications are involved. This study aims to create an awareness in furniture industry, regarding industrial propert rights which are protected by the Industrial Property Law, number 6769, in Turkey. The study was conducted on medium and large scale furniture companies in Turkey. An online survey was conducted within the scope of the study. Criterion sampling, which is one of the purposive sampling methods, under non-probable sampling methods. The criteria was determined as, being a manufacturer and having a medium or large scale of manufacture. Within the scope of the sudy, 8 companies were included in the survey and the awareness degrees were analysed through the data obtained. Present state was analysed and suggestions were made for future works.