Filing trademarks on a broad list of goods and services without
the intention to use is common practice in Turkey. Owners of such
trademarks might have acted in bad faith at the time of filing, or
could abuse their rights arising from such trademarks while
enforcing them.
To illustrate, owners of overly broad trademarks may request
third parties to pay a high amount of monies to grant them letters
of consent, to withdraw their opposition, or to engage in
co-existence agreements with them in bad faith. Such trademark
owners may also send cease and desist letters, file infringement
actions, or criminal complaints against third parties.
Those facing problems in using and registering their trademarks
due to the existence of overly broad trademarks may file a
revocation action against these trademarks due to non-use, or raise
a non-use defence in opposition proceedings or infringement
actions, if five years have passed since the registration dates of
these trademarks.
