¹Republic of Turkey Ministry of Health, Turkish Medicines and Medical Devices Agency, Çankaya/Ankara, Türkiye DOI : 10.12991/marupj.306786 Intellectual property is briefly the knowledge of somebody owns that gained importance in today"s business strategy. A patent is a license of exclusive rights granted by a state to the holder to an invention, design or process for a period of time. Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) in the field of cosmetics are often; patents, trademarks and trade secrets include formulations and production techniques. Research & Development (R&D), innovation, technology transfer, patent, establishing quality systems, branding and benchmarking are the important factors that must be considered for sustainability of the cosmetic sector. In the scope of sustainable economy and thus economic growth of a country R&D, Research & Technological Development (RTD) and innovation activities need to be encouraged and supported by effectively protected IPR systems. Negative effects of infringements of IPR to consumers, right owners, legal businesses and states can be listed basically as health risks arising from using unsafe products, decreasing the encouragement of innovation, loss of jobs and money. Especially determining the critical steps in the life cycle of products and checking their legality is efficient at fighting with counterfeiting and IPR crimes. Cooperation of competent authorities and right owners has great importance of detecting infringements of intellectual property rights and counterfeit products and conducting an effective legal process. Keywords : Cosmetics, intellectual property, patent, innovation, technology transfer, trademark