Never Ending Delay For Administrative Revocation Of Trademarks

In accordance with Article 26 of the Industrial Property Law (“IP Code”) no. 6769, interested persons may request the Office to revoke a trademark pursuant to paragraph 2 of Article 26 and the decision for revocation of a trademark can be taken accordingly.

For a long time, the authority to revoke the trademarks belonged to the IP Courts as regulated by the former Decree Law no. 556 on the Protection of Trademarks. However, with the entry into force of the IP Code on January 10, 2017, the authority to revoke trademarks has been given to the Turkish Patent and Trademark Office (“the Office”) and to provide a transition period, the entry into force of Article 26 has been postponed for 7 years. In the meantime, as per Provisional Article 4 of the IP Code the authority to revoke trademarks has been left with the IP Courts. This regulation is in line with European Union legislation (“EU Directive 2015/2436”), considered as the reference legislation for the IP Code.