Trademarks, patents and copyright

Trademark registration

Trademark protection comes from registration (Industrial Property Law, Sınai Mülkiyet Kanunu, SMK art. 7/1). Words, shapes, colours, letters, numbers, sounds and the shape of goods or packaging can all be trademarks, as long as the sign distinguishes one business’s goods or services from another’s and can be shown in the register clearly and precisely (art. 4).

Who decides? The Turkish Patent and Trademark Office (TÜRKPATENT, “the Office”; Kurum in the Law) examines the application. Its decisions are challenged before the Board (Kurul, the Re-examination and Evaluation Board), and Board decisions before the Ankara intellectual and industrial property civil court (art. 20, 21/4, 156/2). Before the Office, a person acts personally or through a registered trademark or patent representative (marka vekili, patent vekili) (art. 160/1); these are professions that require an exam and registration and are separate from the legal profession (art. 2/g, h; Law 5000 art. 30). Court proceedings need a separate power of attorney. Applications can be filed through the Office’s electronic system, EPATS.

1. Fix the mark and the list. One application covers one mark; goods and services are classified under the Nice classification (art. 11/2-4).
2. File. The application needs a form, a representation of the mark, a list of goods or services and proof that the filing fee has been paid (art. 11/1). An applicant who files in Türkiye within six months of a first filing in a Paris Convention or WTO state has a right of priority; the priority document is due within three months of filing (art. 12/1, 13/1).
3. Examination. Formal defects must be corrected within two months (art. 15/1). The Office also examines the application under art. 5 and refuses signs that lack distinctiveness, describe the goods, mislead the public or offend public order (art. 5/1-b, c, f, ı; 16/1).
4. Publication and registration. An application with no such problem is published in the Bulletin (art. 16/2); anyone may submit observations but does not become a party before the Office (art. 17). The opposition period starts with publication. If there is no opposition, or every opposition has finally failed, and the registration fee has been paid in time, the mark is entered in the register; if the fee is not paid, the application is struck off (art. 22/1).

Earlier marks matter in two ways. An identical or confusingly similar earlier mark is an absolute ground for refusal (art. 5/1-ç), which the earlier owner can overcome with a notarised consent (art. 5/3). For other conflicts, such as a likelihood of confusion, the Office refuses an application only on the earlier owner’s opposition, not of its own motion (art. 6).

Duration and fees. Protection lasts ten years from the filing date and is renewed in ten-year periods; the renewal request and proof of the fee are due in the six months before expiry, or in the six months after it with a surcharge (art. 23/1-2). The Office sets the fees, and if proof of payment is not filed in time the application is treated as withdrawn (art. 161/1). The amounts change every year and are not given here; the trademark fee calculator can be used.

Opposing a trademark application

Interested persons who think a published application should not be registered under SMK art. 5 or 6 can oppose it to the Office, in writing with reasons, within two months of publication. If the reasons are not filed within that time the opposition is treated as not made; the fee is also paid within the same time, and proof of payment is filed (art. 18). The main relative grounds are (art. 6): a likelihood of confusion with an earlier mark, including association; an agent’s or representative’s application without the owner’s consent; an unregistered mark or other sign used in trade; well-known and reputed marks; another person’s name, company name, photograph or intellectual property right; and bad faith.

1. Count the period and file. Two months run from the publication date in the Bulletin; reasons cannot be added later (art. 18).
2. The applicant is heard. The Office asks the applicant for its views and, if needed, further documents (art. 19/1). If the opposition rests on art. 6/1 and the earlier mark has been registered for at least five years at the filing or priority date, the applicant can ask the opponent to prove genuine use in the last five years or a proper reason for non-use; if it cannot, the opposition is rejected (art. 19/2).
3. Decision. The Office refuses the application in whole or in part, or rejects the opposition; it may encourage the parties to settle (Mediation Law 6325) (art. 19/3-4).
4. Appeal and court. A party harmed by the decision can appeal to the Office within two months of notification, paying the fee in the same period; grounds cannot be changed or added after that (art. 20). The Board gives the final decision (art. 21/4). An action against Board decisions can be brought within two months of notification before the Ankara intellectual and industrial property civil court (art. 156/2; Law 5000 art. 15/C).

International trademark (Madrid)

The Madrid Protocol lets one international application seek protection in several members. Türkiye has been party to the Protocol since 1 January 1999 and the United Kingdom since 1 December 1995 (WIPO list of 8 July 2026).

Who can apply? A person with a real and effective industrial or commercial establishment or domicile in a member, or a national of that member. That member’s office is the “office of origin”: the same mark must already be filed or registered there (the basic mark), and the international application is filed through it (Protocol art. 2/1-2, 8/1; WIPO Guide). An application based on a UK basic application or registration is filed through the UK Intellectual Property Office (UKIPO) (GOV.UK). A person connected to Türkiye may choose the Office as office of origin (Protocol art. 2/2); its fees for Madrid work are set by communiqué (SMK art. 14/3).

Dependence on the basic mark. For five years from the international registration, it depends on the basic mark. If the basic mark ceases to have effect in that period, wholly or partly (for instance it is refused, withdrawn, cancelled or not renewed), the international registration is cancelled to the same extent (Protocol art. 6/2-3). It lasts 10 years and is renewed in 10-year periods (art. 6/1, 7/1).

Seeking protection in Türkiye. An international application designating Türkiye has the same effect as an application filed directly with the Office (SMK art. 14/1). Türkiye has declared an 18-month period for notifying a refusal (a refusal based on opposition may be notified after that period) and has opted for an individual fee (Protocol art. 5/2-b, c and 8/7; WIPO list, footnotes). A person resident abroad acts before the Office through a registered trademark or patent representative (art. 160/3). How opposition periods work for international registrations is set by the Implementing Regulation and is not covered here.

1. Secure a basic mark and choose members. The same mark and goods or services must be filed or registered at the office of origin, and the list cannot go beyond the basic mark.
2. File through the office of origin. It certifies that the application matches the basic mark and sends it to the WIPO International Bureau, which records it and notifies the offices of the designated members.
3. Watch for refusals and dependence. Offices notify a provisional refusal generally within twelve months, or eighteen months for members that have declared so; if none is notified, protection arises in that member as if registered there (Protocol art. 5/2). The five-year dependence and renewal run at WIPO.

Trademark infringement claim

What counts as infringement. The owner can have the following prevented if done without consent: use of an identical sign for the goods or services covered by the registration; use of an identical or similar sign for identical or similar goods or services where there is a likelihood of confusion; and use that takes unfair advantage of, or harms, the reputation of a well-known mark (art. 7/2). Putting the sign on goods, putting goods on the market, importing and exporting, advertising, use as a domain name or keyword and use as a trade name are covered (art. 7/3). Imitating the mark, and selling goods one knows or should know are imitations, are also infringement (art. 29/1). Rights take effect against third parties from publication of the registration; for acts after publication of the application, damages can be claimed (art. 7/4).

Who decides? The intellectual and industrial property civil court, or the civil court of first instance where none exists (art. 156/1). The competent court is that of the claimant’s residence or of the place where the act took place or had its effects; if the claimant has no residence in Türkiye, it is the court where the representative registered on the day of filing has a place of business (art. 156/3-4).

What can be claimed? A declaration of infringement, prevention, an order to stop, removal, and material and moral damages; seizure of infringing goods and of the equipment used only to make them; alteration or, if unavoidable, destruction of the goods; and publication of the final judgment (art. 149/1). Lost profit is calculated, at the owner’s choice, from the likely income without the infringer’s competition, the infringer’s net profit, or a reasonable licence fee (art. 151/2). The right to publication lapses if not claimed within three months of the judgment becoming final (art. 149/3).

1. Collect and, if needed, preserve evidence. Legal interest in preservation is presumed where the evidence may be lost, or become much harder to rely on, if it is not secured at once (HMK art. 400-402).
2. Apply for an interim injunction if needed. The claimant must show that the use is taking place in Türkiye in an infringing way or that serious and effective preparations are under way (SMK art. 159/1). Enforcement must be requested within one week of the order being pronounced or notified to the applicant, or the order lapses; if it was granted before suit, the main action must be filed within two weeks of the request for enforcement (HMK art. 393/1, 397/1). The applicant normally provides security (art. 392/1).
3. Go to mediation (if required). For money claims (receivables and damages), applying to a mediator before suing is a condition of the action; the mediator has six weeks, extendable by up to two (TTK art. 4/1-d, 5/A). Claims for a declaration, an order to stop or invalidity are not on that list; where money and non-money claims are combined, the scope should be checked case by case.
4. File the action. On technical or specialist questions the court may take a court-appointed expert’s report (HMK art. 266).

Defences. A later right is no defence to an action by the holder of an earlier right (SMK art. 155). The owner cannot stop honest use in the course of trade of a person’s own name or address, descriptions of the goods, or the intended purpose of spare parts (art. 7/5). A defendant can plead that the mark has not been used for five years (art. 29/2). Anyone with an interest can seek a declaration that their activity is not an infringement, after first asking the owner for its view or directly by action (art. 154).

Criminal route and limitation. A person who makes goods, provides services, offers, sells, imports or exports by copying or imitating another’s mark faces one to three years’ imprisonment and a judicial fine; prosecution depends on a complaint, and the mark must be registered in Türkiye (art. 30/1, 30/5-6). The complaint must be made within six months of learning of the act and the offender (TCK art. 73/1-2); these cases go to the intellectual and industrial property criminal court (SMK art. 156/1). Private-law claims follow the Code of Obligations (art. 157): a damages claim expires two years after the claimant learns of the loss and the person liable, and in any case ten years after the act (TBK art. 72).

Trademark invalidity and revocation

The Law provides two separate routes to remove a registered mark:

The Office’s revocation power entered into force seven years after the Law’s publication, on 10 January 2024 (art. 192/1-a). Until then courts exercised it, and revocation cases pending in court on that date are concluded by the courts (provisional art. 4).

Invalidity action. Where the grounds concern only some of the goods or services, partial invalidity is ordered (art. 25/5). A mark registered despite lacking distinctiveness, being descriptive or being in common use cannot be invalidated if it acquired distinctiveness through use before the request (art. 25/4). An owner who knew, or should have known, of a later mark’s use and stayed silent for five consecutive years cannot rely on its mark as a ground of invalidity unless the later registration was in bad faith (art. 25/6). Apart from that, the Law sets no separate limitation period for an invalidity action.

Revocation request. A mark not genuinely used in Türkiye within five years of registration without proper reason, or unused for five uninterrupted years, is revoked (art. 9/1). Use in a form that does not change the mark’s distinctive character, use only for export, and use by a third party with the owner’s consent also count as use (art. 9/2-3).

1. Prepare the request. A signed revocation form is filed with the Office together with the fee; each request concerns a single registered mark. If revocation from an earlier date is wanted, the date must be stated in the request. The fee has two parts, an Office fee and an escrow amount, paid together (Regulation art. 30/A, 30/B).
2. Deficiencies, reply and decision. One month is given to cure deficiencies; if they are not cured the request is rejected and the fee is not refunded (Regulation art. 30/A). The request is served on the owner, who has one month to file its reply and evidence, with up to one further month on request. The Office decides on the file (SMK art. 26/7).
3. Proof of use. On a five-year non-use request, the owner must show genuine use in Türkiye or proper reasons for non-use. If genuine use began between the end of the five years and the request, the request is rejected; use in the last three months before the request, made in anticipation of it, is disregarded (art. 26/4).
4. Outcome. A decision can be appealed to the Office within two months of notification (art. 20). A final invalidity or revocation decision binds everyone and the mark is removed from the register (art. 27/5-7).

Patents and utility models

What can be patented. A patent is granted for inventions in any field of technology that are new, involve an inventive step and are industrially applicable (SMK art. 82/1). Novelty is judged against everything made available to the public anywhere in the world before the filing date (art. 83/2). Discoveries, scientific theories, mathematical methods, methods for business activities and computer programs are not inventions as such; diagnostic, therapeutic and surgical methods and plant varieties and animal breeds are not patentable (art. 82/2-3). A disclosure by the inventor in the twelve months before filing does not prevent a patent, but the Law accepts this only in the cases it lists (art. 84/1).

Utility models. New and industrially applicable inventions are protected by a utility model; chemical and biological substances and processes, pharmaceutical inventions and biotechnological inventions are excluded (art. 142). A search report is prepared for a utility model; after grant the patent opposition route is not available, and only a court can declare invalidity (art. 143/6, 143/11). The same invention cannot receive both a patent and a utility model with the same scope (art. 145/2); one can be converted into the other (art. 104).

Who decides? The Office examines the application; the Board hears oppositions (art. 99, 100), and Board decisions can be challenged within two months before the Ankara intellectual and industrial property civil court (Law 5000 art. 15/C). A court decides invalidity of a patent (art. 138).

1. File. The application needs a form, a description, claims, any drawings referred to, an abstract and proof of payment of the fee (art. 90/1). The filing date is fixed when the request, the applicant’s identity and contact details, and a description in Turkish or one of the foreign languages the Law lists have been filed (art. 90/2-3); Turkish translations and missing items are due within two months (art. 95/2). A filing within twelve months of a first filing in a Paris Convention or WTO state has priority (art. 93/1).
2. Search. The search request and fee are due within twelve months of the filing date, or the application is treated as withdrawn (art. 96/1). The President may halve this period (art. 96/4); the current period should be checked.
3. Publication and examination. The application is published in the Bulletin eighteen months after the filing or priority date (art. 97/1). The examination request, with fee, is due within three months of notice of the search report, or the application is treated as withdrawn (art. 98/1). If the Office finds defects it sends up to three notices, each allowing three months (art. 98/3-4).
4. Grant and opposition. The decision to grant is published in the Bulletin; within six months of publication third parties can oppose, paying a fee, on grounds of patentability, insufficient disclosure or extension beyond the application as filed (art. 98/5, 99/1).
5. Term. A patent lasts twenty years and a utility model ten years from the filing date, and neither can be extended. Annual fees are due from the end of the second year and every year after; they can be paid within six months after the due date with a surcharge, and if not paid the right ends (art. 101).

A grant does not mean the Office warrants the patent’s validity or usefulness (art. 98/9). An invention made by an employee in the course of their duties is a service invention and must be notified to the employer in writing without delay (art. 113/1, 114/1); for the employment side, see employment law. For fee amounts, use the patent and design fee calculator.

Industrial design registration

A design is the appearance of the whole or a part of a product, or of its ornamentation, arising from features such as lines, shape, colour, material or surface texture; “product” includes packaging and graphic symbols but not computer programs (SMK art. 55/1-2). A design must be new and have individual character (art. 56/1). A registered design is protected; an unregistered design is protected only if first made available to the public in Türkiye, and only against copying (art. 55/4, 59/2).

Who decides? The Office examines, the Board hears oppositions (art. 64, 68), and a court decides invalidity actions (art. 77).

1. File. The application needs a form, a visual representation showing the design’s appearance, the product name, the designer’s name and how the right was acquired (art. 61/1). The priority period is six months (art. 62/1). Disclosure by the designer, or by a third party with their consent, in the twelve months before filing does not affect novelty (art. 57/2). Publication can be deferred for up to thirty months (art. 66/1).
2. Examination. The Office refuses applications that do not meet the definition of a design, offend public order or are found not to be new (art. 64/6); the applicant can object to a refusal within two months of notification (art. 67/1).
3. Registration and third-party opposition. The design is entered in the register and published in the Bulletin (art. 65/1). Within three months of publication, third parties can oppose with a fee, for instance because the design does not meet the definition or is not new and individual; if the opposition succeeds, the registration is invalid (art. 67/2, 68/5).
4. Term. A registered design is protected for five years from filing and can be renewed in five-year periods up to twenty-five years in total. Renewal is requested in the six months before expiry or, with a surcharge, in the six months after (art. 69/1, 69/4). An unregistered design is protected for three years (art. 69/2).

Persons with an interest can sue the registered owner for invalidity during the term of protection or within five years after it ends (art. 77, 78). Rights in a design made by an employee in the course of their duties belong to the employer unless agreed otherwise (art. 73/1). The acts that infringe a design are listed in art. 81, and the claims (art. 149-151) are the same as for trademarks.

Patent infringement claim

What counts as infringement. Imitating the invention by making the patented product without the owner’s consent; selling, importing, holding for commercial purposes or using products one knows or should know are infringing; using the patented process or selling products made directly by it; and usurping the right (SMK art. 141/1). Where the patent covers a process for obtaining a product and the product is new, the same product made without consent is presumed to have been made by the patented process, and the person who says otherwise must prove it (art. 141/2).

Scope of protection. The claims determine the scope, and the description and drawings are used to interpret them; an element that performs substantially the same function in the same way with the same result is generally treated as equivalent (art. 89/1, 89/5). The applicant can sue for infringements from the publication of the application; earlier acts can also be covered if the infringer was told of the application or acted in bad faith (art. 141/3).

Who decides, and what can be claimed? The court, the claims (art. 149-151), evidence preservation, interim injunctions (art. 159; HMK art. 389-397), mediation (TTK art. 5/A) and limitation (art. 157; TBK art. 72) are as described under “Trademark infringement claim”. If the patent owner has not met the Law’s duty to work the patent, lost profit is calculated only by reference to a licence fee (art. 151/5).

Defences. The defendant can seek invalidity of the patent: lack of patentability, insufficient disclosure, extension beyond the application as filed, lack of entitlement to the patent or extension of the scope of protection (art. 138/1); the action can be brought during the term or within five years after it ends (art. 138/5). A person who in good faith was already using the invention in Türkiye at the filing date is not subject to the patent for that use (art. 87/1). Acts concerning products put on the market by the owner or with its consent fall outside the right (art. 152/1). A declaration of non-infringement can also be sought (art. 154).

Criminal route. The Law’s only criminal provision is for trademark infringement (art. 30); the Law has no separate criminal provision for infringing a patent or design.

Copyright infringement

Work and author. A work is a product of the mind and the arts that bears its author’s individual character and falls into the literary, musical, fine art or cinematographic categories (FSEK art. 1/B-a); the author is the person who created it (art. 8). Rights in works made by employees in the course of their duties are exercised by the employer unless otherwise agreed or implied by the nature of the work (art. 18/2). Economic rights last for 70 years after the author’s death (art. 27); contracts about them must be in writing and list the rights transferred separately (art. 52). Registration does not create rights; it helps prove ownership (art. 13/3).

Civil route. A person whose rights are infringed can ask for the infringement to be removed (art. 66), for likely infringement to be prevented (art. 69) and for moral damages (art. 70/1); fault is not required for removal (art. 66/3). For economic rights, damages follow the rules on tort if the infringer was at fault, and the claimant can ask for the infringer’s profit instead (art. 70/2-3); TBK art. 72 is therefore the basis for limitation. A person who adapts, reproduces, distributes or communicates a work without permission can also be asked to pay up to three times the fee that would have been agreed or the market price set under the Law (art. 68/1). An interim injunction may be sought before or after suit (art. 77). The courts named in SMK art. 156/1 hear these cases (FSEK art. 76). Copyright claims that do not concern a commercial enterprise are not commercial cases (TTK art. 4/1), so the mediation condition in art. 5/A does not apply to them.

Criminal route. A person who without the right holder’s written permission adapts, reproduces, distributes, communicates or publishes a work, or offers for sale, sells or holds for commercial purposes unlawful copies, faces one to five years’ imprisonment or a judicial fine; passing off another’s work as one’s own and quoting without naming the source are separate offences (art. 71). Prosecution depends on a complaint, and if the right holders do not give the public prosecutor the documents proving their rights within the complaint period, a decision not to prosecute is made (art. 75/1). The complaint period is six months from learning of the act and the offender (TCK art. 73/1-2).

Online infringement. The right holder first asks the content provider to stop within three days; if the infringement continues, the public prosecutor is approached and the service provider is asked to stop the service to the infringing content provider within three days (FSEK additional art. 4/3).

For applicants and claimants abroad

• A representative before the Office. A person resident abroad is represented before the Office only by a registered trademark or patent representative; steps taken by the applicant without one are treated as not taken. Once a representative is appointed, all steps are taken by them and notices to them count as notices to the applicant (SMK art. 160/3-4).
• A power of attorney for court. For representation in court, the form of a power of attorney given abroad is described in giving a power of attorney from the UK. The registered representative needed before the Office is a separate matter.

Deadlines in one place

Documents to prepare

• The applicant’s identity or company details; for those living abroad, where court steps are needed, an apostilled and translated power of attorney.
• For a trademark: a representation of the mark, the list of goods or services and any priority document.
• For an opposition or revocation: the earlier registration, the publication date, and dated invoices, catalogues and advertising showing use.
• For a patent, utility model or design: the description, claims, drawings and abstract, or the visual representations of the design; the inventors’ and designer’s details; records of any earlier disclosure.
• For a claim: the register entry, the infringing product, dated screenshots and sales records, licence and assignment agreements and documents on the loss; for copyright, records showing when the work was created and first published.