Amendments brought by New Trademark Law and Effect on the Oppositions

Within the scope of industrial rights; patents, utility models, designs, brands, geographical indications as well as traditional product names are collected in a Law text. In parallel with economic development, there have been significant developments in the field of industrial property rights and the need for this law has increased. In particular, with the incentives given to the entrepreneurship sector, industrial property rights have been insufficient on the basis of Decree Laws.

The law aims to make the texts of patents, trademarks, industrial designs and geographical signs separate on a single roof and become simpler.

• With the enactment of the Law, the name of the Turkish Patent Institute has changed to Turkish Patent and Trademark Institution.
• If the owner of the brand gives his consent third parties will be able to register the brand. This situation will enable the sister companies to buy the same brand and the two companies will be able to buy the same brand by compromising between them.
• The same or similar trademark application shall be rejected upon the objection of the owner of an unregistered mark or other mark used during trade. With this rule, the owner of a trade name or business name registered in an unregistered trademark or trade registry is entitled to appeal. The possibility of appealing a subsequent trademark application based on a dedicated internet domain name may be considered in this context.
• Unused brands have been transferred to the Turkish Patent and Trademark Authority by the court. According to the paragraph 2 of Article 19, which regulates the objection to the publication, the objections based on a previous trademark right are required to prove that the trademark used for the objection has been registered more than five years before the object of the trademark. If the trademark cannot be proved to be used seriously or if it cannot be proved that the use of the trademark is justified, the objection to the trademark application will not be taken into consideration. ‘ That is, if you have registered for more than 5 years, if you object to a trademark, the other party may request you to use it. If you do not meet the request for use, your appeal will be rejected.
• If the owner of the brand has remained silent for 5 years even though he / she knows or should know that a later date brand has been used, the other party may continue to use the brand unless it is malicious.
• In addition to the protection of registered trademarks, unregistered trademarks are also protected. With this regulation, these trademark owners are entitled to object to the same and indistinguishable similar brands applied for the same or the same type of goods and services.
• The publication period was shortened from 3 months to 2 months and two bulletins were decided to be published. During the two-month period, monitoring the publications, identifying the brands that could be appealed and compiling the reasons and making the objection were extremely labor and meticulous. This situation revealed the difference of working with expert staff and emphasized the importance of brand follow-up agreement.
• Since it is not mandatory to appeal before a brand’s invalidity when filing a lawsuit, the two-month appeal period may lead to an increase in the number of cases.
• If a trademark application contains a registered geographical mark or consists of a registered geographical mark, it shall be rejected by the Authority at the first inspection. This rule, which emphasizes the difference between geographical marks and brand, is intended to prevent unfair use of geographical marks by third parties.
• Useful Models came to the examination and the patent system without examination was abolished. In addition, patents were allowed to be filed in front of the Turkish Patent after being registered in accordance with the regulation in Europe.
• Inspection system was also introduced in the designs. Turkish Patent may refuse the design if it does not see the design as new.