What is Trademark?
‘’It is stated in Industrıal Property Code No 6769; ‘’Trademarks may consist of any signs like words, including personal names, figures, colors, letters, numbers, sounds and the shape of goods or their packaging, provided that such signs are capable of distinguishing the goods or services of one undertaking from those of other undertakings and being represented on the register in a manner to determine the clear and precise subject matter of the protection afforded to its proprietor.’’ Trademark; ensures that the goods of the TM owner are separated from the goods of other companies that offer the same service. The face and fingerprint of the goods and services you offer in the market is your trademark. Your trademark should be remarkable, catchy and impressive. In fact, the most important element here is the logo of your trademark. The average consumer usually remembers you with your logo, not with your trademark name. For this reason, it is very important to be careful while creating your logo, to be original, memorable and remarkable.
What is Trademark Registration and Why is it Important?
Registration of your trademark means that your trademark is officially recognized and taken under protection. If we think of your trademark as a baby, registering your trademark can be considered as registering your baby to civil registry. When you register your trademark, you will get the trademark registration certificate; it gives the right to legally appeal any rape that may be confused with your brand in relation to the same or similar goods and services that are included in the scope of your trademark, which will unfairly benefit from your brand's reputation or harm your brand's distinctive character. Except those; Trademark registration certificate can be transferred, transferred by inheritance, can be shown as pledge and guarantee, subject to license agreement, can be transferred / sold independently from the company.
What is WIPO?
The World Intellectual Property Organization is one of the 17 specialized organizations of the United Nations. WIPO was established in 1967 to "promote the protection of intellectual property rights and creative activity in the world". WIPO, which works internationally to protect and regulate intellectual property rights, also provides financial and scientific support to developing countries in this sense. Through agreements opened to all members of the United Nations, it works to clarify the intellectual property law of nations. Currently, 191 countries are members of WIPO. Turkey is WIPO member since May 12, 1976 . WIPO plays an important role in the international registration of your brand.
How To Do TM Application in Turkey?
1) First of all, similarity and class research is carried out to determine whether the trademark is available for registration (what the classes are will be mentioned below).
2) An application is made to the Turkish Patent and Trademark Office for registration. After this application, a researcher is carried out by a trademark specialist working at the institution to determine whether the trademark is suitable for registration in terms of article no. 5 of Industrial Property Code.
3) If the trademark specialist decides that there are absolute reasons for rejection, the specialist will refuse your registration , but the way to appeal this decision is open. If he decides that your brand is suitable for registration, your brand will be announced in the trademark bulletin. (Trademark Bulletin published by the Trademark and Patent Agency of Turkey in certain periods.)
4) After this point, the 2-month appeal period begins and there are 2 possibilities.
a) If nobody object to your brand, your brand will be registered.
b) If another company objects to your trademark in terms of the reasons for the relative refusal of Art. 6 of the Industrial Property Code, the registration period will be frozen. At this point, you also have time to give opinions to the objection.
5) If your trademark is still not accepted by Turkish Patent in the end of your objection to decision, you can go to Review and Evaluation Board. The decisions made by the Review and Evaluation Board are final. Against these, only the case of invalidity can be filed within the Intellectual Property Court within 5 years.
What are Trademark Classes? Trademark classes determine the area where your brand will operate. These classes were set to a worldwide standard and were called Nice Classes. The first version was created with the 1957 Treaty of Nice.
-From the first broadcast until now, Nice classes have been arranged in accordance with current needs, the last updated regulation came into force on January 1, 2018 as the 11th version.
-There are 45 brand classes in total; the first 35 of these are classes of goods; the rest are service classes.