Trademark Law & Litigation in Türkiye

Trademarks are among the most valuable assets a business owns in Türkiye, and they are only as strong as the way they are registered and defended. We advise brand owners, investors, and foreign companies across the full lifecycle of a mark: securing it before the authorities, opposing conflicting applications, litigating infringement, and removing bad-faith or dormant registrations. Whether you are launching in the Turkish market for the first time or protecting an established international brand, the same principle applies, get the registration right early, and enforcement becomes far cheaper and faster later.

The legal framework

Trademark law in Türkiye is governed by the Industrial Property Code No. 6769, in force since 10 January 2017, which replaced the former Decree-Law No. 556. Türkiye is also party to the principal international instruments, including the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property and the TRIPS Agreement, and it operates within the Madrid System for international registrations. That last point matters in practice: a foreign brand owner can designate Türkiye through a single Madrid application rather than filing separately, though local prosecution and any dispute are still handled under Turkish rules.

Unregistered marks are not left entirely without protection: the Turkish Commercial Code No. 6102 offers a limited remedy through its unfair competition provisions. That protection is narrower, harder to prove, and gives you no presumption of ownership, which is why registration remains the foundation of any serious brand strategy.

Türkiye is a first-to-file country. Ownership generally goes to whoever registers first, not whoever used the name first, so a delay of a few months can hand your brand to a trademark squatter. File before you announce.

Registration before TURKPATENT

Registration is handled by the Turkish Patent and Trademark Office (TURKPATENT). A registered mark grants the owner the exclusive right to prevent unauthorised third-party use for ten years, renewable indefinitely in ten-year terms. Renewal can be filed in the six months before expiry, or within a six-month grace period afterwards against a surcharge, so a valuable mark need never lapse if the diary is managed properly.

The application is examined on absolute grounds for refusal, such as lack of distinctiveness, descriptiveness, or a mark that has become generic. Once accepted, the application is published in the Official Trademark Bulletin, and third parties then have a two-month window to file an opposition on relative grounds, typically an earlier identical or confusingly similar mark. Managing prosecution and opposition well is often the cheapest and fastest way to stop a competing brand before it ever reaches the market.

Practical steps for a clean filing

A registration is only as strong as the groundwork behind it. In practice we recommend:

• A clearance search of the TURKPATENT register before filing, to reveal conflicting earlier marks and avoid a wasted application.
• Careful selection of the Nice Classification classes so the specification covers your real and intended commercial activity, without over-claiming.
• Filing in colour, word, and figurative forms where the brand identity justifies it, so protection matches how the mark is actually used.
• Monitoring the Bulletin for later applications that encroach on your rights, so you can oppose within the window rather than litigate afterwards.

Infringement and remedies

Under Article 29 of Code No. 6769, infringement includes:

• Using an identical or confusingly similar sign on identical or similar goods or services
• Taking unfair advantage of, or damaging, the reputation of a well-known mark
• Extending or transferring licensed rights without authorisation

A trademark owner can bring a civil action seeking a declaration of infringement, an injunction to prevent and stop the conduct, seizure and destruction of infringing goods, and compensation for both material and moral damage. Material damages can be assessed on the owner’s actual loss, the infringer’s profit, or a notional licence fee, whichever best reflects the harm. Where the infringement amounts to a criminal offence, a separate criminal complaint may be pursued, carrying prison sentences and judicial fines, and the longer criminal limitation periods then apply.

A preliminary injunction is often the decisive move. Securing an early order that halts the infringing sales, sometimes before the defendant even files a defence, can be worth more to a brand than the damages awarded years later.

Choosing the right enforcement route depends on where the conflict sits in the mark’s lifecycle:

Route	When it applies	Typical outcome
Opposition at TURKPATENT	A conflicting application is published in the Bulletin	The rival application is refused before registration
Civil infringement action	An infringing sign is already in use on the market	Injunction, seizure and destruction, damages
Non-use revocation	A blocking registration has sat unused for five years	The dormant mark is removed from the register
Customs recordal	Counterfeit goods are being imported	Suspect shipments detained at the border

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Cancellation, invalidity and non-use revocation

A registration can be challenged where it should never have been granted or is no longer used. Grounds are classified as absolute or relative, and where the defect concerns only some goods or services, the court may declare partial invalidity. Anyone with a legal interest, and in some cases public authorities, may bring an invalidity action before the competent civil courts; TURKPATENT is not a party to those proceedings.

Non-use revocation is a distinct and increasingly important tool for clearing the register of obstructive marks. A mark that has not been put to genuine use for five years without proper justification can be revoked. Since January 2024, this revocation is handled administratively by TURKPATENT rather than through the courts, a change that makes it faster and cheaper to remove dormant registrations that block a new brand. The flip side is a warning to every owner: keep evidence of genuine, dated commercial use, or risk losing a mark you thought was safe.

Competent courts and time limits

Specialised Civil Courts for Intellectual and Industrial Property Rights hear trademark disputes in İstanbul, Ankara, and İzmir. In other provinces the general civil courts of first instance are designated to sit as IP courts. Jurisdiction usually follows the defendant’s domicile or the place where the infringement occurred, which gives a claimant some tactical choice over venue.

Infringement claims are generally subject to a two-year limitation period running from the date the owner learns of the infringement and the infringer, and a longer backstop of ten years from the infringing act. Because ongoing infringement is treated as continuing, time does not run while the conduct persists, so a live, repeated infringement rarely becomes time-barred while it continues.

Customs enforcement and emerging issues

Court action is only part of an effective anti-counterfeiting strategy. A trademark owner can record a mark with the Turkish Customs Administration, which allows the authorities to detain suspected counterfeit goods at the border before they enter the market. This customs recordal, combined with rapid follow-up applications to the IP court, is frequently the most cost-effective way to stop counterfeit imports at scale.

In practice, a customs recordal works best when it is kept current: the recordal must be renewed, and the more product photographs, packaging samples, and known-infringer intelligence you lodge with Customs, the more reliably officers recognise fakes at inspection. When a shipment is detained, deadlines to apply to the IP court are short, so the brand owner needs a local team ready to act within days, not weeks.

Trademark practice is also adapting to new commercial realities, including questions raised by NFTs and digital assets, and the tightening of the Electronic Commerce Law to hold online marketplaces more accountable for counterfeit listings. For consumer brands, monitoring and enforcing against listings on major e-commerce platforms is now as important as classic court litigation.

How we help

We handle the full range of trademark work: clearance searches and filing strategy, prosecution and opposition before TURKPATENT, infringement and unfair competition litigation, invalidity and non-use revocation actions, and anti-counterfeiting through customs enforcement. For foreign clients we also manage Madrid System designations into Türkiye and act as the registered Turkish attorney where a local address is required. Whether you are entering the Turkish market or defending an established brand, we build a protection strategy designed for effective enforcement in practice.