TÜRKPATENT Issues Long Awaited Amendments on Implementing Regulations of IP Code Regarding Administrative Revocation of Trademarks

The implementation of Article 26 of the Industrial Property Code no. 6769 (“IP Code”) establishing the administrative revocation of trademarks was postponed for 7 years as of the entry into force of the IP Code on January 10, 2017. As of January 10, 2024, the Turkish Patent and Trademark Office (“the Office”) started to accept revocation requests as “preliminary applications” due to the absence of the secondary regulation for the implementation of the administrative revocation.

Finally, on March 15, 2025 the amendments on implementing regulations of the IP Code regarding administrative revocation of trademarks were published.

As per the regulation, the Office will issue a notification to those who have filed a revocation request as a preliminary application prior to the date of entry into force of the regulation if the Office determines any deficiencies in the revocation requests filed. Following the completion of this procedural step, the Office shall start examining the revocation requests on merits. Considering considerable number of revocation requests having been filed since January 10, 2024 to date, we think that it will take time for the Office to process the outstanding workload.

The Regulation stipulates that a revocation request filing can only include one trademark of a trademark proprietor and once the filing is made the revocation request process continues against the trademark even if the recorded proprietor of the trademark changes, by a notification to the new trademark proprietor. An application requesting revocation must be filed by payment of the official fees and dues, along with a form containing the following information:

- the registration number and the goods or services subject to the revocation request,

- the ID and contact information of the requesting party and the trademark agent, if the request is made by a trademark attorney,

- the reasoning on the legal grounds of the revocation request and information or documents regarding the legal grounds other than those relating to a non-use legal ground.

The Regulation also introduces an additional fee to be kept under an escrow account that shall be paid at the time of filing of the revocation request in addition to the official due for revocation. Accordingly, the total amount required by the Office will consist of two parts to be collected through a single payment: i) the official dues that needs to be paid to the Office and ii) the amount to be held in the escrow account.

If the Office determines a deficiency in the above listed points, it will send a notice to the revocation request owner and grant one month to fulfil the deficiency. If the deficiency is not completed within the prescribed period, the revocation request will be rejected. If it is determined that the revocation request has no deficiencies, the Office will notify the trademark owner of the revocation request. Once the trademark owner is notified of the revocation request, it will be entitled to file its response, evidence and information against the revocation request within one month as of the notification. The trademark owner is also entitled to request an additional period of one month to file its responses and evidence. So, the trademark owner’s reply period can be a maximum of two months.

The Office may ask the parties to submit additional document and information and/or make an explanation on a certain aspect to be determined by the Office. In such case, the Office will grant one month to the relevant party to which it has requested to provide further information by the Office. The Regulation does not foresee a counter-petition to be filed by the revocation request owner upon the submission of responses and evidence by the trademark owner.

Following the completion of the procedure described above, the revocation request will be examined by the Trademarks Department and a decision shall be made on the merits. Once the parties are notified of the decision, they will be entitled to appeal the Trademarks Department’s decision before the Re-Examination and Evaluation Board. The decision of the Board shall be the final decision of the Office, and it could only be challenged by filing a court of action before the Ankara IP Courts.

Regarding the additional amount that will be kept under an escrow account, if the revocation request is,

- entirely rejected with the Office’s final decision, such amount shall be refunded to the trademark owner upon request;

- entirely accepted with the Office’s final decision, such amount shall be refunded to the revocation request owner upon request;

- partially accepted with the Office’s final decision, such amount shall be recorded as revenue to the Office.

The escrow amount is determined as TRY 23.458,33 + VAT of 20% (TRY 28.150 including VAT, around EUR 690 based on the exchange rate as of March 27, 2025) for 2025 that needs to be paid in addition the official due which was also determined in the amount of TRY 23.458,33 + VAT of 20% (TRY 28.150 including VAT, around EUR 690 based on the exchange rate as of March 27, 2025) for 2025. In this respect, for the revocation requests that will be filed as of March 15, 2025, the total amount that needs to be deposited to the Office account is TRY 46.916,66 + VAT of 20% (TRY 56.300 including VAT, around EUR 1.375 based on the exchange rate as of March 27, 2025).

It was set forth that the referred additional amount shall not be applied retrospectively for the revocation requests that have already been filed until the entry into force of the Regulation. Therefore, this additional amount will not be asked for the pending revocation requests filed before March 15, 2025.

First published by Gün + Partners in Mar 20, 2025.