A software company from Berlin signs its first Turkish reseller, a cosmetics brand from Seoul opens an Istanbul warehouse, a fintech from London translates its app into Turkish. Each owns its brand at home and assumes the name travels with the product. Then the distributor, a former agent or a stranger who read the press release files the same word with the Turkish Patent and Trademark Office (Türk Patent ve Marka Kurumu) first, and the foreign company learns that in Türkiye trademark protection is obtained by registration, not by use. This article explains how the Industrial Property Code No. 6769 (Sınai Mülkiyet Kanunu, SMK) treats a foreign brand: what can be registered, which grounds block a registration, how priority and opposition work, what the five-year use requirement means, how bad-faith and agent filings are attacked, which remedies exist, and what a filing plan should look like before launch.
What a trademark is and who may own one: Articles 3 and 4
Article 4 defines a trademark (marka) as any sign, including personal names, words, shapes, colours, letters, numbers, sounds and the shape of goods or packaging, provided it distinguishes the goods or services of one undertaking from those of others and can be represented in the register so that the subject of protection is clear and precise. Article 3 lists who benefits from the Code: Turkish citizens, persons domiciled or carrying on industrial or commercial activity in Türkiye, persons entitled to apply under the Paris Convention or the WTO Agreement, and nationals of states granting reciprocal protection. Two procedural points follow for a foreign applicant. Under Article 160(3) a person domiciled abroad can act before the Office only through a registered trademark attorney (marka vekili); acts done without one are deemed not done. Under Article 11(1)(f), if the mark sample contains letters outside the Latin alphabet, the application must give their Latin equivalent.
First to file: Article 7 and the priority window of Article 12
Article 7(1) states the rule that governs everything else: protection under the Code is obtained through registration. Under Article 7(2) the owner may prevent unauthorised use of an identical sign for the registered goods, of an identical or similar sign for identical or similar goods where there is a likelihood of confusion including association, and, for a mark with a level of reputation in Türkiye, of a similar sign on any goods where the use takes unfair advantage of or harms that reputation or distinctive character. Article 7(3) extends the prohibition to use on business papers and in advertising, to import and export, to use as a trade name, and to use as a domain name or keyword with commercial effect on the internet where the user has no legitimate connection to the sign. Rights take effect against third parties from publication of the registration (Article 7(4)).
Because the register decides, timing decides. Under Article 12(1) a person from a Paris Convention or WTO state who has duly filed a trademark application there enjoys a right of priority (rüçhan hakkı) to file the same mark for the same goods or services in Türkiye within six months of that first filing; the priority document must follow within three months, otherwise the claim is deemed not made (Article 13(1)). Under Article 12(6) third-party applications filed after the priority date for an identical or indistinguishably similar mark on the same type of goods are refused. Under Article 14(1) a Madrid Protocol designation of Türkiye has the same effect as a direct national filing, so a company with a home registration can extend it through WIPO.
Absolute and relative grounds: Articles 5 and 6
The Office examines every application of its own motion against the absolute grounds in Article 5 and publishes those that pass (Article 16). The list refuses, among others, signs devoid of distinctive character, descriptive signs, signs identical or indistinguishably similar to a mark registered or applied for earlier for identical or same-type goods (Article 5(1)(ç)), functional shapes, deceptive signs, state emblems, religious symbols, signs contrary to public order or morality, and signs containing a registered geographical indication. Two softeners help: distinctiveness acquired through use before filing cures the distinctiveness and descriptiveness objections (Article 5(2)), and the earlier-mark objection cannot be raised if a notarised letter of consent from the earlier owner is filed (Article 5(3)).
The relative grounds in Article 6 apply only on opposition by the holder of the earlier right, which is why watching the Bulletin is part of brand protection. Article 6(1) covers likelihood of confusion with an earlier mark. Article 6(2) is written for the typical foreign-brand problem: an application by a commercial agent or representative to register the mark, or an indistinguishably similar one, in its own name without the owner’s consent and without due cause is refused on the owner’s opposition. Article 6(3) protects an unregistered mark or another sign used in trade for which a right was acquired before the filing or priority date. Article 6(4) refuses applications identical or similar to well-known marks (tanınmış marka) under Article 6bis of the Paris Convention for identical or similar goods, and Article 6(5) protects a mark with a level of reputation in Türkiye even against dissimilar goods where the later mark would take unfair advantage of, harm or dilute it. Finally, Article 6(9) provides in one sentence that applications filed in bad faith (kötüniyet) are refused on opposition. For a brand known abroad but not yet in Türkiye, these are the tools against a pre-emptive filing; they work only if someone notices the application and opposes it in time.
Publication and the two-month opposition: Articles 15 to 23
The Office checks formalities and fixes the filing date at the date, hour and minute of receipt (Article 15); after the absolute-grounds examination the application is published in the Bulletin (Bülten). Under Article 18(1) oppositions (yayıma itiraz) on Article 5 or 6 grounds must be filed by interested persons within two months of publication; they must be written and reasoned, and the fee must be paid within the same two months, otherwise the opposition is deemed not filed. Article 19(2) contains a trap for opponents relying on an old registration: if their mark has been registered in Türkiye for at least five years, the applicant may demand proof of genuine use during the preceding five years, and the opposition fails without it. Office decisions may be appealed to the Re-examination and Evaluation Board within two months (Article 20(2)), and the Board’s final decision is challenged before the Ankara Civil Court for Intellectual and Industrial Property Rights (Article 156(2)). Protection runs ten years from the filing date and is renewable for ten-year periods (Article 23).
Use it or lose it: Articles 9 and 26
Article 9(1) provides that a mark not put to genuine use in Türkiye by its owner for the registered goods or services within five years of registration without a justified reason, or whose use is suspended for an uninterrupted five years, shall be cancelled. Use in a form that does not alter the distinctive character, use solely for export, and use with the owner’s consent, for example by a distributor, all count (Article 9(2) and (3)). Cancellation (iptal) is now administrative: under Article 26(1) the Office decides requests based on non-use, the mark having become generic, misleading use, or breach of the rules on guarantee and collective marks. Article 192(1)(a) brought Article 26 into force seven years after the Code’s publication on 10 January 2017, so since January 2024 these requests go to the Office rather than the courts (Transitional Article 4). Use resumed before the request saves the mark, but use begun in the three months before the request in anticipation of it is disregarded (Article 26(4)). Cancellation takes effect from the request date (Article 27(2)), whereas invalidity (hükümsüzlük) under Article 25, which remains a court matter on Article 5 or 6 grounds, is retroactive to the filing date (Article 27(1)); under Article 25(6) an owner who knowingly tolerated a later mark for five consecutive years loses the right to attack it unless it was registered in bad faith. The lesson cuts both ways: an unused squatter registration can be cleared through the Office after five years, and the company’s own registration needs documented use in Türkiye.
Enforcement: Articles 29, 30 and 149 to 159
Article 29(1) treats as infringement any use within Article 7 without consent, imitation with an identical or indistinguishably similar sign, and selling, importing, exporting or holding for commercial purposes goods bearing the imitated mark while knowing or being in a position to know of it. The civil claims in Article 149 include prevention, cessation, compensation for material and moral damage, seizure and destruction of infringing goods and of machines used exclusively to produce them, and publication of the judgment at the infringer’s expense. Under Article 151(2) lost profits are calculated, at the claimant’s choice, as the owner’s lost income, the infringer’s net profit or a reasonable royalty. Preliminary injunctions under Article 159 expressly include seizure of infringing or imported goods wherever they are, including customs areas, free ports and free zones (Article 159(2)(b)); the customs detention procedure itself is governed by customs legislation, not the Code. Criminal protection is in Article 30: producing, selling, importing, exporting or holding for commercial purposes goods under a mark infringed by appropriation or confusion (iktibas veya iltibas) is punished with one to three years’ imprisonment and a judicial fine of up to twenty thousand days, prosecution requires a complaint, and Article 30(5) makes a Turkish registration a condition of any conviction. A claimant without a Turkish domicile sues before the specialised intellectual property court where its registered attorney has its office (Article 156(1) and (4)).
A filing plan for a foreign company
First, file in Türkiye before any announcement, distributor negotiation or app-store release, and within six months of the home filing so that the Article 12 priority date reaches back to it; with an existing home registration, a Madrid designation under Article 14 is the cheaper route. Second, cover the right goods and services: Article 11(3) classifies them under the Nice Agreement, and Article 11(4) warns that the same class is no presumption of similarity nor a different class of dissimilarity, so the specification should describe what is actually sold. Third, file the versions that will circulate in Türkiye: the word mark, the logo, the Latin transliteration that Article 11(1)(f) requires for non-Latin scripts, and any Turkish rendering the local team will use. Fourth, register in the name of the foreign parent, not the distributor, and deal with distributors by licence under Article 24. Fifth, appoint the trademark attorney early, since Article 160(3) makes representation mandatory and the deadlines are two months (Articles 18, 20 and 146). Sixth, watch the Bulletin and oppose within two months; if a filing slips through, Articles 10 and 25 allow transfer or invalidity through the courts. Seventh, keep evidence of genuine use from the start, and record assignments and licences in the register, since unrecorded transactions cannot be asserted against good-faith third parties (Article 148(5)).
The brand is registered in the EU. Does that protect it in Türkiye?
No. Article 7(1) makes registration in Türkiye the source of protection, and Article 30(5) requires a Turkish registration for criminal enforcement. An EU filing gives a six-month priority right under Article 12 and can be extended under the Madrid Protocol (Article 14); until then the owner can only oppose others on the Article 6 grounds, such as well-known status, earlier use in trade or bad faith.
A former distributor has registered the brand name. What can be done?
If the application is pending, oppose within two months of publication under Article 18, relying on Article 6(2) (agent filing), 6(3) (earlier use in trade), 6(4) (well-known mark) and 6(9) (bad faith). If it is registered, Article 10 allows a court claim to prohibit the agent’s use and transfer the registration, and Article 25 allows invalidity on the same grounds. After five years of non-use, a cancellation request under Article 26 is simpler.
The mark was registered in Türkiye in 2019 but sales start only now. Is it at risk?
Partly. Under Article 9(1) a mark not genuinely used in Türkiye within five years of registration can be cancelled under Article 26. Genuine use started before anyone files a request saves the mark (Article 26(4)), unless it began in the three months before the request in anticipation of it. Use by a distributor with consent counts (Article 9(3)), provided the mark is used in a form that does not alter its distinctive character.
Related: trademark · intellectual property · international desk · company formation for foreign founders.
Sources. Industrial Property Code No. 6769 (Articles 3-7, 9-30, 146-160, 192 and Transitional Article 4). Statute links open the official Turkish texts on mevzuat.gov.tr.
This article is provided for general information only and does not constitute legal advice. Please seek legal support for an assessment of any specific matter.
