Turkey further extended IP deadlines

Turkey has further extended IP deadlines keeping the time limits suspended as from 13 March 2020 due to noval coronovirus (Covid-19) pandemic.

The further extension has become possible by the recent presidential decision dated 29 April 2020 (Decision No: 2480). With the decision, all the deadlines, which were previously suspended starting from 13 March 2020 to 30 April 2020 by the omnibus bill issued on 26 March 2020, were further extended till 15 June 2020 and will resume on 16 June 2020.

As the calculation of the deadlines appears complex to some extent, Turkish Patent and Trademark Office (TURKPATENT) has indicated each situation for calculating the upcoming deadlines as follows:

• If the time limit set by the Office expired on 12 March 2020 or before, the time limit will not change, namely there will be no extension of time.
• If the time limit set by the Office expired between 13 March 2020 and 27 March 2020 (inclusive these dates), the deadline to act will be 30 June 2020.
• If the time limit set by the Office expired/will expire between 28 March 2020 and 15 June 2020 (inclusive these dates), the deadline to act will be the date which is calculated by adding the remaining time as of 13 Mart 2020 to 16 June 2020.
• If the time limit set by the Office started before 13 March 2020 and ended/will end on 16 June 2020 or later, the deadline to act will be the date which is calculated by adding 95 days to the expiry date of the time limit.
• If the time limit set by the Office started between 13 March 2020 and 15 June 2020 (inclusive these dates), the time limit set by the Office will start on 16 June 2020.

For calculating the deadlines, the spreadsheet calculator provided here can be used.

TURKPATENT remains fully operative and accept all the applications and requests by its electronic filing system (EPATS).

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A high number of trademark applications associated with coronavirus recently filed in Turkey

Turkish Patent and Trademark Office (TÜRKPATENT) has received a great number of trademark applications associated with "Covid-19" and "Coronavirus" in February and March 2020.

These trademark applications either directly cover "Covid-19" and "Coronavirus" or use a wording highly associated with Covid-19 and Coronavirus. To put it in numbers, 33 applications covering "corona" or "korona, and 17 applications covering "covid" were filed in the last two months.

Several of applied-for "Covid" marks

Class 5

Classes 3, 9, 10, 25

Classes 9, 10

Classes 1, 18, 25

Class 13

Class 3

Several of applied-for "Corona" marks

Classes 25, 35

Class 3

Classes 3, 5

Class 10

Class 25

These trademark applications cover a large spectrum of goods and services in different classes, including class 3 (soaps, detergents, cosmetics etc.) and class 5 (pharmaceuticals, hygiene products, disinfectants etc.) and class 10 (health masks). The examination of the majority of the applications is still in progress.

TÜRKPATENT has already refused several of the applications covering “corona” or “covid” in class 3  and class 5. However, it has allowed some applications to be published, e.g. the mark "covid-19" in class 9 and "corona" in class 13. 

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Turkish IP deadlines extended due to coronavirus

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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TÜRKPATENT made COVID-19 restrictions on its premises

Turkish Patent and Trademark Office (TÜRKPATENT) has temporarily discontinued its information help desk and will not accept visitors on its premises due to novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. The stakeholders will be able to get information and response to their inquiries by calling call center of the Office.

As TÜRKPATENT has recently migrated all its services to electronic environment (EPATS), the applicants and attorneys will be able to file all the IP applications and lodge any requests by electronic means without experiencing any interruption of services.

TÜRKPATENT is fully operative and has not yet notified of any instances such as interruption of services, temporary closure or extension of time for deadlines.

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