New Era of Turkish Intellectual Property Law

Turkey has been waiting for decades to adopt a unified law on the protection of Intellectual property (IP) rights. With the new IP Law no. 6769, in force as of January 10th, 2017, this reformed IP law is the first of its kind, regulating, patents, trademarks, designs, and geographical indications under one umbrella. In this amendment, the IP Law changed the name of the Turkish Patent Institute to the Turkish Patent and Trademark Office; simplifies the proceedings; and adopts a better system for protection and enforcement of industrial property rights by recognizing co-existence agreements and consent letters for trademarks.

The IP Law amendment offers incentives for inventors as well by offering better support for R&D activities, introduction of post grant opposition, expansion of compulsory license criteria, getting rid of unexamined patents, acknowledging traditional product names together with geographical indications. In another significant move, the competent authority is also changed from the courts to the Turkish Patent and Trademark Office for non-use actions. Further, to develop a stronger legal environment to combat counterfeiting, the opposition period for trademarks and designs is shortened to two months and three months respectively.

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