Filing trademarks on a broad coverage of goods and services
lists without intention to use is a 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 trademarks having overly broad
specifications may request third parties to pay a high amount of
money 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 and criminal complaints against
third parties.
Those who face problems in using and registering their
trademarks due to the existence of trademarks having overly broad
specifications may file a revocation action against the trademark
registrations due to non-use, or raise a non-use defence in
opposition proceedings or infringement actions if five years
