Protecting Non-Traditional Trademarks

Non-traditional trademarks refer to marks which are not traditionally perceived as trademarks. Some examples are colour, sound, motion, position and 3D views of products etc.

Non-traditional trademarks are not specifically described in the Turkish Industrial Property Code (the IP Code) which came into force on January 10 2017 in Turkey. Since there is no special provision in the code regarding the registration of non-traditional trademarks, the principles pertaining to the registration of other signs are also applied to non-traditional trademarks. Accordingly, "absolute refusal grounds" enumerated in Article 5 of the IP Code are applied to non-traditional trademarks as well.

In Article 4 of the IP Code, a new definition was given to the word trademark and the graphical representation criteria for signs to be registered as a trademark has changed to "signs capable of being represented on the register in a manner which enables the competent authorities and the public