TURKPATENT updated the trademark examination guideline

Turkish Patent and Trademark Office (TURKPATENT) has updated its trademark examination guideline. 

TURKPATENT has updated the guideline regarding the confusingly similarities of the trademarks, one of the relative refusal grounds in the opposition-based examinations. The updated sections cover the basic approaches of handling the examinations of goods and services and the signs in the similarity analysis during the opposition proceedings.

The update also provides case-by-case comparative analysis in respect of different instances in view of the decisions of the Turkish IP courts as well as the decisions of the EUIPO and the Court of Justice of the EU.

The guideline is available on this link.

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TURKPATENT takes measures to protect the personal data

Turkish Patent and Trademark Office (TURKPATENT) has taken some measures to protect the personal data under the Law No. 6608 for the protection of the personal data.

The measures cover important restrictions for preventing the revelation of personal data on online patent, trademark and design search and registry tools and in the official gazettes for patents, trademarks, and designs.

With the new measures being introduced, the below-listed personal data will not be disclosed in the online search tools and the official gazettes:

• addresses of inventors or designers,
• addresses of applicants and rights owners being natural persons,
• email addresses of inventors or designers,
• phone numbers of inventors or designers

The measures also cover the personal data of Turkish patent and trademark agents being natural person. Turkish patent and trademark agents will have the freedom of choice which of their personal data can be displayed or listed in the online search and registry tools, and the list of the patent and trademark agents provided by TURKPATENT.

While the personal data is no longer provided on the online search and registry tools and the official gazettes, the third parties will be able to obtain the contact details of the applicants/rights owners by filing a special request at TURKPATENT where such data is necessary for the purposes of court actions, mediation or license etc. In this case, the third parties demanding the contact details will have to electronically sign a statement of liability for use of the related data and such data will be sent by e-mail upon their signing such statement.

The data of the legal entities will remain available to the public as usual after their patent, trademark or design applications being published.

TURKPATENT has published a clarification text for the new practice.

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TURKPATENT amended its procedure for change of name, address and company type

Turkish Patent and Trademark Office (TURKPATENT) has made some procedural changes for recording changes of names, kinds and addresses of applicants and right holders as well as assigning customer numbers.

In the new procedure, TURKPATENT will no longer request the addresses of local persons (natural or legal) when filing applications as they will be automatically fetched from the Central Registry Number System (MERSİS), Turkish registry system of legal entities. Accordingly, the practice for change of address for local persons has been terminated.

In addition, TURKPATENT will no longer request any evidence for changing the names of the local persons as it will use the MERSIS database to confirm the change of name. In this regard, a simple request will be sufficient to record change of name for local persons. However, it will be necessary to submit evidence for recording change of names and company types of foreign entities.

Meanwehile, TURKPATENT will no longer assign a customer number for local natural or legal persons, instead using the Turkish Identification Number (T.C. Kimlik Numarası) for local natural persons and the tax number for local legal entities to identify them. On the other hand, TURKPATENT will continue assigning a number for foreign natural and legal persons, which is hereafter named "Person Number" (earlier called "Customer Number").

These procedural changes are especially important for local persons’ business, because they will any longer need to submit less information for IP filings and no documents for recording any changes. These changes will also allow TURKPATENT to keep consistent and up-to-date records regarding the right holders and fast process any changes when requested

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TÜRKPATENT releases data for 2020 for industrial property filings

Turkish Patent and Trademark Office (TÜRKPATENT) announced the industrial property application statistics for 2020.

In 2020, it was noted that there was an increase of 0.7% in domestic patent applications, 23.2% in domestic utility model applications, 30.57% in domestic trademark applications, and 16.64% in domestic design applications compared to the previous year.

Patents

A total number of 7893 patent applications were filed in 2020, 7803 of which were filed by local entities and 90 of which were filed by foreign entities. A decrease of 0.2% was observed in the total number of applications compared to the previous year.

However, only considering the patent applications of local entities, it has been observed that there was an increase of approximately 0.7% in domestic patent applications (7751 in 2019, 7803 in 2020).A total number of 265 international patent applications entered the national phase in Turkey. This represents a decrease of 3.3% compared to the previous year (2019: 274).

A total number of 11828 European patents were validated in Turkey in 2020. This represents 8,8% decrease compared to the previous year (2019: 11828, 2020: 10785). While 10785 of total European patent validations were of foreign origin, 280 of them were of domestic origin.

Utility models

3600 utility model applications were filed in 2020 in Turkey, 3563 of which were filed by local entities and 37 of which were filed by foreign entities.

The total number of utility model applications increased by 22.4% compared to the previous year. Considering the domestic applications only, it was seen that there was an increase of 23.2% in the domestic utility model applications (2892 in 2019, 3563 in 2020).

Trademarks

A total number of 170590 trademark applications were filed in 2020 in Turkey. This represents an increase of 26.97% compared to the previous year. Among the total number of applications, the number of domestic applications was 155913.

The number of domestic applications increased by 30.57% compared to the previous year (2019: 119412).Total 14677 trademark applications of foreign origin were filed in Turkey. 

While 4562 of the trademark applications of foreign origin were filed directly, 10115 of them were filed through the Madrid Protocol. Accordingly, there was a 1.77% decrease in trademark applications of foreign origin compared to the previous year.

Designs

Total 11307 design applications were filed in 2020 in Turkey. Of these design applications, 9948 were of domestic origin, 365 were of foreign origin, and 993 were from The Hague system.

The number of domestic applications increased by 16.64% compared to the previous period. 

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TURKPATENT announced fee changes effective January 01, 2021

Turkish Patent and Trademark Office (TURKPATENT) announced new official fees for patents, utility models, trademarks and designs effective January 01, 2021. The fees schedule was published in the Official Gazette on December 30, 2020. 

The official fees for patent, utility models, trademarks and designs have been increased an average 13% for each fee. 

Exceptionally, the official fees related to the provisional protection of European patents, validation of European patents and PCT national phase entries in Turkey have been substantially increased at an average rate of 40%, specifically 1.930 TRY from 1.380 TRY for the provisional protection of the European patents, 3.095 TRY from 2.210 TRY for the validations of the European patents, and 2.015 TRY from 1.440 TRY for the PCT national phase entries respectively.

The other frequently paid fees have become as follows: 

• Filing patent application: 55 TRY
• Filing utility model application: 55 TRY
• Filing trademark application: 280 TRY per class
• Filing design application: 200 TRY for one design and 80 TRY for each additional design 

The official fees in the Turkish jurisdiction are revised and announced in the beginning of every year and come into force as from January 01 of each year.

The schedule of fees announced for 2021 can be found on this link. TURKPATENT accepts all the applications and requests, and the payments thereof via its state-of-the art EPATS system.

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