Trademark Registration in Turkey for Foreign Companies

Trademark registration in Turkey is made with the Turkish Patent and Trademark Office (TÜRKPATENT), and trademark protection arises through registration (6769 sayılı Sınai Mülkiyet Kanunu m.7/1). A company established abroad cannot file on its own: it must act through a trademark or patent attorney registered in Turkey, because acts it carries out directly are deemed not to have been made (6769 sayılı Kanun m.160/3). A registration lasts ten years from the application date and can be renewed indefinitely (m.23/1).

This guide is for foreign brand owners, including retail, food and service brands from the Gulf, planning to enter Turkey directly or through a franchisee or distributor. It covers who may apply, how the application moves through examination and opposition, how long protection lasts, and what happens when a registration is challenged or a mark is copied. Statute names are given in Turkish because the Office and the courts use them.

1. Trademark Registration in Turkey: Why It Matters for a Foreign Brand

Trademark registration in Turkey is the source of the owner’s exclusive rights: the law states that trademark protection is obtained through registration, and the rights arising from registration belong exclusively to the owner (6769 sayılı Sınai Mülkiyet Kanunu m.7/1, m.7/2). With a registration, the owner can prevent others from using an identical sign for the registered goods or services, or a similar sign where there is a likelihood of confusion (m.7/2-a, m.7/2-b).

Registration also matters for criminal protection. The penalties for trademark infringement can be imposed only if the mark is registered in Turkey (6769 sayılı Kanun m.30/5). A brand that is famous in Dubai or Riyadh but unregistered in Turkey therefore starts any enforcement in Turkey from a weaker position.

2. Trademark Registration in Turkey: Who May Apply

Trademark registration in Turkey is open to four groups: Turkish citizens; persons resident or carrying on industrial or commercial activity in Turkey; persons entitled to apply under the Paris Convention or the World Trade Organization Agreement; and nationals of states that protect Turkish citizens’ industrial property rights on a reciprocal basis (6769 sayılı Sınai Mülkiyet Kanunu m.3/1). An application by a person outside these groups is refused (m.15/4).

2.1. Trademark Registration in Turkey from Abroad: The Mandatory Attorney

Trademark registration in Turkey from abroad requires a registered trademark or patent attorney. Persons whose place of residence is abroad may be represented before the Office only by trademark or patent attorneys, and acts carried out directly by them without an attorney are deemed not to have been made (6769 sayılı Sınai Mülkiyet Kanunu m.160/3). Once an attorney is appointed, all acts are carried out by the attorney and notifications to the attorney count as notifications to the owner (m.160/4).

The Office may ask for the original or a certified copy of the power of attorney showing the attorney’s authority (6769 sayılı Kanun m.160/5); how a power of attorney signed abroad is prepared for use in Turkey is explained in power of attorney for Turkey from abroad. In practice this means a foreign company chooses its Turkish representative before filing, not after a problem arises. Deadlines in the procedure run from notifications, and those notifications go to the attorney on record.

3. Trademark Registration in Turkey: What the Application Contains

Trademark registration in Turkey begins with an application that includes a form with the applicant’s identity, a sample of the mark, the list of goods or services, and information that the application fee has been paid (6769 sayılı Sınai Mülkiyet Kanunu m.11/1). Each application covers one mark only (m.11/2), and goods and services are classified under the Nice Agreement (m.11/3).

One requirement matters especially for Arabic brands. If the mark contains letters outside the Latin alphabet, the application must give their equivalent in the Latin alphabet (6769 sayılı Kanun m.11/1-f). Decide the Latin rendering of an Arabic word mark before filing, because it becomes part of the record.

3.1. Trademark Registration in Turkey: Priority and the Madrid Route

Trademark registration in Turkey can benefit from an earlier filing abroad. A person from a Paris Convention or WTO state, or resident or with an establishment in one, who has properly filed for the mark in such a state may claim priority in Turkey for the same mark and the same goods or services within six months of that first filing; a priority document from the first office is required (6769 sayılı Sınai Mülkiyet Kanunu m.12/1).

Alternatively, an international application under the Madrid Protocol that designates Turkey has the same effect as an application filed directly with the Office (6769 sayılı Kanun m.14/1). The choice between a national filing and a Madrid designation is usually made at the level of the brand’s whole portfolio.

4. Trademark Registration in Turkey: Examination and Publication

Trademark registration in Turkey passes through a formal check, then a substantive examination. The Office first checks the application against the formal requirements; if something is missing, the applicant has two months to remedy it, and an application not remedied in time is withdrawn from processing (6769 sayılı Sınai Mülkiyet Kanunu m.15/1, m.15/3).

The Office then examines the application against the absolute grounds for refusal and refuses it for the goods or services to which those grounds apply (6769 sayılı Kanun m.16/1). An application that passes is published in the Bulletin (m.16/2). Publication opens the window for third parties to object.

4.1. Trademark Registration in Turkey: The Two-Month Opposition Period

Trademark registration in Turkey can be opposed within two months of publication. Objections that the application should not be registered under the absolute or relative grounds are made by interested persons within two months of publication, in writing and with reasons, and the opposition fee must be paid within the same period (6769 sayılı Sınai Mülkiyet Kanunu m.18/1, m.18/2).

The same period works in the other direction for a foreign owner. If someone else publishes an application for a mark similar to yours, the two months is the time to object. Monitoring the Bulletin is part of protecting a brand in Turkey, not only filing for it.

4.2. Trademark Registration in Turkey: Appeal and Court Action

Trademark registration in Turkey can be refused in whole or in part, and the decision can be challenged. Parties harmed by an Office decision may appeal to the Office within two months of notification, in writing and with reasons; new grounds cannot be added after that period (6769 sayılı Sınai Mülkiyet Kanunu m.20/1, m.20/2). The appeal is decided by the Office’s board, whose decision is the Office’s final decision (m.21/4).

Against that final decision, an action may be brought before the Ankara Intellectual and Industrial Property Civil Court within two months of notification (5000 sayılı Kanun m.15/C). The Ankara court is the competent court for all actions against Office decisions (6769 sayılı Kanun m.156/2). This court stage is where the case leaves the Office and becomes litigation.

5. Trademark Registration in Turkey: Well-Known Marks and Bad-Faith Filings

Trademark registration in Turkey follows the filing date, but an earlier filer does not always win against a foreign brand. Opposition after publication can rely on several relative grounds that matter to foreign owners (6769 sayılı Sınai Mülkiyet Kanunu m.6):

• Agent or representative filing. An application by a commercial agent or representative for the owner’s mark, made in its own name without permission and without a justified reason, is refused on the owner’s opposition (m.6/2).
• Earlier unregistered rights. If a right was acquired before the application or priority date in an unregistered mark or another sign used in trade, the application is refused on that owner’s opposition (m.6/3).
• Well-known marks. Applications for marks identical or similar to marks well known within the meaning of Article 6bis of the Paris Convention are refused on opposition for identical or similar goods or services (m.6/4).
• Bad faith. Applications filed in bad faith are refused on opposition (m.6/9).

These grounds are raised by opposition within the two-month period after publication (6769 sayılı Kanun m.18/1). After registration, the same grounds support an invalidity action, explained below.

6. Trademark Registration in Turkey Challenged: The Invalidity Action

Trademark registration in Turkey can be declared invalid by the court if one of the absolute or relative grounds existed (6769 sayılı Sınai Mülkiyet Kanunu m.25/1). Interested persons, public prosecutors or the relevant public bodies may bring the action, and it is brought against the person registered as owner at the date of the action; the Office is not a party (m.25/2, m.25/3). Invalidity can be partial, limited to some goods or services (m.25/5).

Time matters. An owner who, for five consecutive years, remained silent while knowing or having to know that a later mark was being used cannot rely on its own mark to invalidate the later one, unless the later registration was made in bad faith (6769 sayılı Kanun m.25/6). A foreign brand that discovers a copycat registration in Turkey should therefore act early.

7. Trademark Registration in Turkey: Grant, Term and Renewal

Trademark registration in Turkey is granted once the application has been examined, published, any oppositions finally rejected, and the registration fee paid; if the registration fee is not paid on time, the application is withdrawn from processing (6769 sayılı Sınai Mülkiyet Kanunu m.22/1). The register is public (m.22/3).

Protection lasts ten years from the application date and is renewed for further ten-year periods (6769 sayılı Kanun m.23/1). Renewal is requested within the six months before expiry; if missed, it can still be made within six months after expiry on payment of an additional fee (m.23/2).

8. Trademark Registration in Turkey: Use It or Risk Revocation

Trademark registration in Turkey must be followed by use. A mark that, without justified reason, is not seriously used in Turkey for the registered goods or services within five years of registration, or whose use is interrupted for an uninterrupted five years, is revoked (6769 sayılı Sınai Mülkiyet Kanunu m.9/1). Revocation is decided by the Office on the request of an interested person (m.26/1-a, m.26/2).

Use with the owner’s consent counts as use by the owner (6769 sayılı Kanun m.9/3), so a franchisee or licensee using the mark keeps it alive. A licence can be exclusive or non-exclusive; unless the contract says otherwise it is non-exclusive, and the licensor must take measures to guarantee the quality of the licensee’s goods or services (m.24/2, m.24/4).

9. Trademark Registration in Turkey and Distributors Who Register Your Mark

Trademark registration in Turkey by your own distributor is a known risk when a foreign brand enters through a local partner. If, without the owner’s permission, the same or an indistinguishably similar mark is registered in the name of a commercial agent or representative who has no justified reason, the owner may ask the court to prohibit its use and to transfer the registration to the owner (6769 sayılı Sınai Mülkiyet Kanunu m.10/1). A distribution agreement that states who owns and who may register the mark in Turkey avoids this dispute from the start; disputes with Turkish commercial partners more generally are covered in company and commercial disputes.

10. Trademark Infringement in Turkey

Trademark infringement in Turkey includes using the mark without permission in the ways the law protects, imitating it with an identical or indistinguishably similar sign, knowingly selling, importing, exporting or stocking goods bearing an infringing mark, and extending licensed rights without permission (6769 sayılı Sınai Mülkiyet Kanunu m.29/1). Producing, selling, importing or storing goods by infringing another’s trademark is also a criminal offence, prosecuted on complaint, and only for marks registered in Turkey (m.30/1, m.30/5, m.30/6).

Civil actions are heard by the intellectual and industrial property civil courts, and criminal cases by the intellectual and industrial property criminal courts (6769 sayılı Kanun m.156/1). A rights holder suing a third party may sue where the claimant is domiciled, where the infringing act took place or where its effects were felt (m.156/3); a claimant with no domicile in Turkey may sue at the place of business of the attorney recorded in the register (m.156/4).

If your Turkish entry also involves setting up a local company or licensing through a partner, see setting up a company in Turkey as a foreigner and governing law and jurisdiction in Turkey.