During the ceremony that took place at Ankara Sheraton Hotel with the attendance of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Arçelik A.Ş. received the first place in the categories, the Firm with the Most Number of Patent Applications, the Firm with the Most Number of Patent Registrations and the Firm with the Most Number of International Patent Applications. Dr. Bülent Bulgurlu, the CEO of Koç Holding, received Arçelik’s ‘Patent League Championship’ awards from Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan himself.

Arçelik A.Ş. received the “Turkish Patent League Award” in the categories of the firm with the most number of patent applications and the firm with the most number of patent registrations, while also receiving the ‘Patent Golden Award’ in the category of the firm with the most number of international patent applications. Arçelik A.Ş was thus listed in the first place in all the patent categories during ‘Turkish Patent Awards 2009’.

The Turkish Patent Awards ceremony, which is organized for the third time this year and which is very important in terms of rewarding and encouraging innovations, was attended by the academicians, industrialists, inventors, researchers, artists and non-governmental organizations, public and private sector organizations/establishments and the senior representatives of industrial property organizations of many countries.

Arçelik A.Ş. is now the owner of the 10% of the patents produced in Turkey and 45% of the patent applications filed before the World Intellectual Property Organization from Turkey during the last 3 years. Reaching 101st place in the list of companies with the most number of international applications worldwide in 2007, Arçelik A.Ş. is the only Turkish company that is included in the list of 500 companies announced by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). Carrying their domestic success over to the international arena and being the only Turkish company to be included among the giants of the Champions League for Patent, Arçelik thus reinforces the achievement of Koç Holding, the only Turkish company among the 1.000 world companies saving greatest resources for R&D, according to the Report of the European Commission.

These achievements of Arçelik A.Ş. are a result of the emphasis placed by the company on patents and industrial property rights and the investments made by the company in R&D and technology.