Are We There Yet?

Are we there yet?

Well, it seems we are... Almost.

When the Industrial Property Code No. 6769 came into force on 10 January 2017, many IP practitioners were pleasantly surprised to read that interested third parties could now seek the cancellation of a trademark registration before the Turkish Patent and Trademark Office ("TÜRKPATENT") according to the provisions of Article 26(2). This was a major development because until then a cancellation request could only be filed before a civil court at the jurisdiction of the registrant. Türkiye has established specialized IP Courts in its various cities; however, this is not the case with all 81 of them. Although a large portion of Turkish business life is established in and around Istanbul, Ankara and Izmir, which have IP Courts, there were cases when an interested third party was faced with the challenge of pursuing a civil action in a rural part of the country where there are no IP Courts and civil court judges are