Turkey has recently extended legal and administrative deadlines, including those regarding the IP-related matters, due to the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
The extension of deadlines became possible with a provisional article under an omnibus bill (Bill No: 7226) enacted by the Turkish Parliament. The bill came into force on March 26, 2020 after its publication in the Turkish Official Gazette (Gazette No: 31080).
With the entry into force of the provision made by the bill, Turkish Patent and Trademark Office (TÜRKPATENT) has announced that:
- All deadlines for the industrial property rights were suspended as of 13 March 2020.
- All the deadlines falling due between 13 March 2020 and 30 April 2020 will resume on 1 May 2020, which means that the deadlines during this time will have been extended till April 30, 2020.
- An additional 15 days will be added to the deadlines, which will expire within 15 days from 01 May 2020, whereas the remaining term will be taken into account if there are more than 15 days to expire on 01 May 2020.
- The applicants and attorneys will be able to retroactively perform any acts for which the deadlines had expired after 13 March 2020 but before 26 March 2020 on which extension of time was granted.
This deadline extension also covers the ongoing cases regarding the IP rights in the Turkish courts.
If the pandemic still persists after 01 May 2020, the President of Turkey will have the capacity to extend the deadlines of his own accord provided that it is for only once and not more than 6 months.
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