Trademark Registration & Litigation in Türkiye

Unregistered marks are not left entirely without protection: the Turkish Commercial Code No. 6102 offers a limited remedy through its unfair competition provisions, and the owner of a prior unregistered mark used in trade may oppose a later application under SMK Article 6(3). That protection is narrower and harder to prove, 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.

A trade name entered in the trade registry does not carry that protection, as trade name versus trademark explains.

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 the absolute or relative grounds of SMK Articles 5 and 6, most often 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.

The same office also registers designs, a separate right addressed under industrial design protection.

• Using the mark without the owner’s consent in the ways covered by Article 7: an identical sign on the registered goods or services, an identical or similar sign on identical or similar goods or services where there is a likelihood of confusion, or a sign that takes unfair advantage of, or damages, the reputation or distinctive character of a mark well known in Türkiye
• Imitating the mark by using it, or an indistinguishably similar sign, without consent
• Selling, distributing, importing, exporting or holding for commercial purposes goods bearing an imitated mark while knowing, or having reason to know, that it is imitated
• Extending licensed rights without authorisation or transferring them to third parties

A trademark owner can bring a civil action seeking a declaration of infringement, orders to prevent and stop the conduct, seizure of infringing goods and, where unavoidable to prevent further infringement, their destruction, and compensation for both material and moral damage (SMK Article 149). Material damage covers the actual loss and lost profit; under Article 151 lost profit is calculated, at the owner’s choice, on the income the owner would probably have earned without the infringer’s competition, the infringer’s net profit, or the licence fee the infringer would have paid. Where the infringement amounts to a criminal offence under Article 30, a separate criminal complaint may be filed; the offence carries one to three years’ imprisonment and a judicial fine of up to 20,000 days, and the longer criminal limitation period then also applies to the damages claim (Turkish Code of Obligations Article 72).

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:

Non-use revocation is a distinct and increasingly important tool for clearing the register of obstructive marks. A mark that, without a justified reason, has not been put to genuine use in Türkiye within five years of registration, or whose use has been suspended for an uninterrupted five years, is revoked on request (SMK Article 9). Since 10 January 2024 (Articles 26 and 192), 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.

Damages claims are subject to a two-year limitation period running from the date the owner learns of the damage and the person liable, and in any event ten years from the infringing act (Turkish Code of Obligations Article 72). Claims to stop an infringement that is still continuing are generally not regarded as time-barred while the conduct continues. Separately, an owner who knew or should have known of the use of a later registered mark and remained silent for five consecutive years can no longer rely on its mark to have that later mark invalidated, unless the later registration was made in bad faith (SMK Article 25(6)).

In practice, a customs recordal works best when it is kept current: 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, the right holder must obtain a preliminary injunction within ten working days of notification (three for perishable goods), extendable by up to ten working days for good cause (Customs Law No. 4458, Article 57), 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.

• Real Estate & Property Law: Title deed due diligence, foreign property acquisitions, and Land Registry (TKGM) transfers.
• Intellectual Property & Trademark Litigation: Trademark, patent, and copyright enforcement before TÜRKPATENT and IP Courts.
• Personal Data Protection (KVKK/GDPR): VERBİS registration, data inventory mapping, and cross-border data transfer compliance.
• Legal Matters in Istanbul for Foreign Clients and Companies: Full-service commercial and civil advocacy before Istanbul courthouses.