Domain Name Disputes in Türkiye

A domain name is often the first and most valuable point of contact between a business and its customers. When someone else registers, hijacks, or trades on a name that belongs to your brand, the damage to reputation and revenue can be immediate — traffic is siphoned to a competitor, customers land on a parked page full of ads, or a squatter demands a five-figure sum to hand the name back. Türkiye offers two distinct routes for resolving these conflicts, depending on the extension involved, and choosing the right one is the first strategic decision in any case.

What Counts as a Domain Name Dispute

A dispute arises whenever there is a conflict over the right to hold or use a particular domain. The most common scenarios are:

• Cybersquatting — registering a domain that matches a known brand in order to sell it back or divert traffic.
• Trademark infringement — a domain that copies or closely imitates a registered mark.
• Trade name and unfair competition conflicts — use of a company name or a confusingly similar variant.
• Typosquatting — deliberate misspellings (e.g. “goggle” for “google”) that capture mistyped traffic.
• Former partners and ex-employees — a distributor, franchisee, or departing manager who registered the domain in their own name and refuses to return it.

In each case the underlying question is the same: who has the superior legal right to the name, and was the registration made in good faith. That single question — good faith or bad — runs through every procedure described below.

Two Systems: “.tr” Domains and Global Domains

The correct procedure depends entirely on the extension. Getting this wrong wastes fees and time, so it is worth being precise from the outset.

”.tr” domains — handled through TRABIS

Türkiye’s country-code domains (“.com.tr”, “.org.tr”, “.gen.tr” and similar) are administered through TRABIS (the Domain Name System operated under the Information and Communication Technologies Authority, ICTA / BTK). Since TRABIS became operational in 2022, the Middle East Technical University no longer runs the registry, and eligibility rules have loosened — the plain “.tr” extension is now available more broadly, which has increased both legitimate registrations and opportunistic grabs.

Disputes over “.tr” names are resolved by accredited Dispute Resolution Service Providers (Uyuşmazlık Çözüm Hizmet Sağlayıcıları, UÇHS) under the ICTA regulation on internet domain names. This is a specialised administrative arbitration route, not ordinary litigation.

Global domains — handled through UDRP

Domains ending in “.com”, “.net”, “.org” and other generic top-level domains fall outside the Turkish system. These are governed by ICANN’s Uniform Domain-Name Dispute-Resolution Policy (UDRP), administered by bodies such as WIPO and the National Arbitration Forum. A Turkish business whose brand is taken on a “.com” pursues its remedy through UDRP, in English, on an international basis — regardless of where the squatter is located.

Route	Covers	Decider	Remedies	Typical pace
TRABIS / UÇHS	”.tr” domains	Accredited arbitrator or panel	Transfer or cancellation	Weeks
UDRP	”.com”, “.net”, “.org” and other gTLDs	WIPO / NAF panel	Transfer or cancellation	A few months
Civil IP Courts	Any domain harming rights in Türkiye	Specialised IP judge	Injunctions, damages, binding findings	A year or more

If a squatter has grabbed both the “.com.tr” and the “.com” of your brand, you are looking at two separate cases in two separate systems. Coordinating them under one strategy — same evidence bundle, aligned arguments, consistent timing — is what keeps the cost and effort proportionate.

The Three-Part Test

Both systems apply a broadly similar standard. To succeed, a complainant must establish:

1. The domain is identical or confusingly similar to a trademark or trade name in which the complainant has rights;
2. The current holder has no legitimate right or interest in the domain; and
3. The domain was registered or is being used in bad faith — with one key difference between the systems: under the Turkish “.tr” procedure it is enough that the domain was registered or is used in bad faith, while UDRP requires that it was both registered and is being used in bad faith.

Meeting all three limbs is essential. A registration that predates the complainant’s rights, a genuine descriptive use, or a holder who is actually known by that name can each defeat a claim. This is why the strength of your underlying trademark — its registration date, its scope, and how well documented your prior use is — usually decides the case before the arbitrator even weighs bad faith.

What “bad faith” looks like in practice

Bad faith is rarely admitted, so it is proven by inference. Panels look for tell-tale patterns: an offer to sell the domain for far more than out-of-pocket costs; a parked page monetised with ads that target your sector; a pattern of registering many well-known marks; the use of privacy shields to hide identity; or a holder who first registered the name only after your brand became known. Screenshots, WHOIS history, and the correspondence trail are the evidence that carries these arguments.

One practical warning: never make an unguarded purchase offer to the squatter before taking advice. A poorly worded approach can be turned around and cited as evidence that you accepted the holder’s legitimacy, and it tips them off to strengthen their position — moving the site behind a functioning storefront, for example — before your complaint lands. Any pre-filing contact should be made deliberately, in writing, and with the eventual evidentiary record in mind.

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How the “.tr” Procedure Works

• Complaint — the applicant files a complaint identifying the disputed domain and evidence of superior rights (trademark registrations, trade name records, prior use).
• Lock — the disputed domain is generally frozen so it cannot be transferred or altered while the case is pending.
• Appointment — the UÇHS assigns a single arbitrator or a three-member panel.
• Response and review — the holder is given the opportunity to answer, and both sides submit their arguments and evidence within set deadlines.
• Decision — the panel may order transfer or cancellation of the domain, or reject the complaint and leave the registration in place.

The process is deliberately swift and document-based, avoiding the delay of full court proceedings. There is generally no oral hearing; the case is won or lost on the quality of the written submission and the exhibits attached to it, which makes the initial filing the single most important step.

Court Action as an Alternative or Complement

Registry-level procedures are not the only route. Infringing or squatted domains can be challenged before the Turkish Civil Courts for Intellectual and Industrial Property Rights under the Industrial Property Code No. 6769 and the unfair competition provisions of the Turkish Commercial Code No. 6102. Litigation is the appropriate path where you also seek an injunction, damages, or a binding court finding — remedies that the arbitration route alone cannot deliver.

Arbitration gets your domain back; the courts make the squatter pay. If the conduct has cost you real money, or you want a precedent that deters repeat offenders, the two routes work best run in tandem rather than as an either-or choice.

In practice, many clients start with the fast arbitration route to secure the name, then decide whether the harm justifies a follow-on damages claim in court. Because a court can also order interim measures, litigation is sometimes the better first move where the squatter is actively causing loss and you need an immediate injunction rather than a decision in a few weeks.

Practical Guidance for Brand Owners

• Register defensively. Secure the “.tr” and “.com” versions of your core brand — and obvious misspellings — before a competitor or squatter does. Renewal reminders should be automated; most disputes trace back to a lapsed registration.
• Protect the trademark first. A registered Turkish mark is the strongest foundation for any domain claim, and it also anchors related enforcement across marketplaces and social media.
• Preserve evidence early. Take dated screenshots of the offending site and save WHOIS records the moment you spot the problem — squatters change parking pages once they sense a complaint coming.
• Act quickly. Delay can be read as acquiescence and complicates the bad-faith analysis.
• Choose the right forum. The extension dictates whether TRABIS/UÇHS, UDRP, or the courts is the correct venue.

We advise clients on which route offers the fastest and most reliable recovery, prepare and file the complaint with a fully evidenced submission, and pursue parallel court action where injunctions or damages are warranted.