Intellectual property work in Turkey divides into two phases that require different skills and different timing. The registration phase — filing trademark applications, patent specifications, and design applications at TÜRKPATENT — requires knowing the specific formal requirements of each application type, conducting meaningful prior art and clearance searches before committing to a mark or a filing strategy, and managing the TÜRKPATENT examination and publication process to reach registration with the broadest viable scope of protection. The enforcement phase — challenging third-party applications that conflict with registered rights, pursuing civil court injunctions against infringers, submitting Customs border measure applications, and filing criminal complaints against counterfeiters — requires knowing which tool produces the best outcome for the specific infringement situation, building an evidence record that satisfies the procedural requirements of each forum, and moving quickly enough that the infringer cannot complete the infringing transaction before the order is obtained. Clients who treat IP registration as the end of their IP program rather than the beginning of an ongoing monitoring and enforcement program typically discover their rights have been eroded — by third-party registrations that should have been opposed, by infringements that became entrenched before enforcement began, or by non-use cancellation vulnerabilities that built up while the mark sat unused. For a comprehensive explanation of how Turkish intellectual property law works as a framework, see our guide on intellectual property law Turkey. This page sets out how we work across the main IP representation categories.
Trademark portfolio management and opposition strategy
A lawyer in Turkey managing a trademark portfolio in Turkey must explain that effective portfolio management begins with a watch service — a systematic monitoring of new TÜRKPATENT publications to identify third-party applications that are confusingly similar to the client's registered marks before those applications advance to registration. The two-month opposition window following publication in the TÜRKPATENT Official Gazette is the most cost-effective point at which to challenge a conflicting application: a successful opposition stops the conflicting mark before it registers, before the applicant has invested in building brand recognition, and before the mark creates confusion in the market. A client who discovers a conflicting mark only after it has been registered faces a substantially more expensive and uncertain invalidation proceeding rather than an opposition. We provide watch service coverage for all registered marks and provide timely opposition assessments when conflicts are identified. Practice may vary — verify current TÜRKPATENT opposition filing deadline requirements and the specific grounds available for opposing a published trademark application before any opposition is filed.
An Istanbul Law Firm advising on opposition and invalidation proceedings must explain that Turkish trademark oppositions are administrative proceedings before TÜRKPATENT in which the opponent must identify the specific earlier right (or rights) on which the opposition is based and explain why the published application conflicts with that right. The grounds for opposition include: identity or confusing similarity with an earlier registered or filed mark; identity or confusing similarity with a well-known mark; likelihood of confusion arising from similarity; and bad faith by the applicant. The TÜRKPATENT opposition committee assesses the opposition on a prima facie basis, and if the committee upholds the opposition, the applicant has the right to appeal to TÜRKPATENT's Board of Appeal and ultimately to the administrative courts. We prepare oppositions with a focused, evidence-supported analysis of the conflict — including visual, phonetic, and conceptual similarity assessments, market survey evidence where the well-known mark ground is relied on, and commercial use evidence where genuine use is at issue. Practice may vary by authority and year — verify current TÜRKPATENT opposition committee assessment criteria and the specific evidence formats accepted for each opposition ground before finalizing opposition submissions.
Patent prosecution and portfolio strategy
A law firm in Istanbul advising on patent prosecution strategy must explain that the claims drafting phase of a patent application is where the most commercially significant decisions are made — because the claims define the legal scope of protection the patent will provide, and poorly drafted claims that are too narrow (failing to cover foreseeable design-arounds), too broad (extending beyond the description and drawings' support), or technically unclear (creating validity uncertainty) produce a patent that may be worthless despite the investment in the filing process. We approach patent claim drafting as a combined legal and technical exercise — working with the inventor to understand the full scope of the inventive contribution, identifying the prior art that constrains what can be claimed, and drafting independent and dependent claims that protect the innovation's commercial value in the most defensible way. For technology with significant commercial potential, we also advise on continuation and divisional filing strategies that can extend coverage as the product or technology develops. Practice may vary — verify current TÜRKPATENT patent examination and prosecution standards and current Turkish court patent scope interpretation approaches before finalizing claim language for any technology category.
An English speaking lawyer in Turkey advising on patent enforcement must explain that the primary enforcement tool for a Turkish patent holder against an infringer is an action before the specialized IP civil court (Fikrî ve Sınaî Haklar Hukuk Mahkemesi) — seeking an injunction (ihtiyati tedbir) to stop the infringing activity, a permanent injunction following trial, damages for losses caused by the infringement, and in appropriate cases an order for the destruction of infringing goods. The most time-sensitive step in patent enforcement is the interim injunction application: an ex parte interim injunction (obtained without prior notice to the infringer) prevents the infringer from completing infringing acts while the main case proceeds, and is available where the rights holder can demonstrate both a prima facie infringement and urgency. The evidentiary package for an ex parte patent injunction must include the patent registration certificate, a specific technical analysis demonstrating how the defendant's product or process falls within the patent's claims, and evidence of the urgency. We build this evidence package — engaging technical experts where required — before filing the injunction application so the court can act immediately. Practice may vary by authority and year — verify current Turkish IP court interim injunction procedural requirements and the specific technical evidence standards applied for patent injunction applications before commencing any enforcement action.
Copyright enforcement for software and creative content
A Turkish Law Firm advising on copyright enforcement must explain that the most commercially significant distinction in Turkish copyright enforcement is between infringement that requires a rights holder to establish authorship and the scope of their rights (where the question is whether the work is original and whether the rights holder is the owner) and infringement where authorship is not disputed but the scope of the infringement is (where the question is how much of the work was taken and whether any license or exception applies). In software copyright cases, the infringement analysis frequently requires technical expert opinion — to compare source code, assess whether similarities reflect copied expression or shared functional requirements, and determine whether the defendant had access to the plaintiff's code. We engage software forensics specialists as part of copyright enforcement mandates for technology clients, and we structure the technical analysis in a form that satisfies the Turkish civil court's evidence requirements. Practice may vary — verify current Turkish IP court standards for software copyright infringement evidence and the specific expert analysis format required before commencing any software copyright enforcement action.
A lawyer in Turkey advising on online and digital copyright enforcement must explain that rights holders whose content has been reproduced without authorization on Turkish websites or platforms have two parallel enforcement options: a takedown application to the platform under FSEK Article 68a (where the platform provider must take down clearly infringing content upon notice), and a civil lawsuit for injunction and damages in the IP civil court. The takedown route is faster and lower cost for clear cases of unauthorized reproduction, but it does not produce damages and the takedown may not be permanent if the infringer re-uploads the content. Civil court proceedings are slower but produce an injunction that runs against the infringer personally and a damages award. For recurring or systematic infringement by commercial counterfeiters, criminal complaints (şikayet) to the public prosecutor under FSEK can trigger investigation and prosecution alongside the civil proceedings. Practice may vary by authority and year — verify current FSEK takedown notification procedures and the specific conditions for criminal prosecution of copyright infringement in a commercial context before selecting an enforcement route.
Trade secrets and confidentiality
An Istanbul Law Firm advising on trade secret protection must explain that trade secrets — including manufacturing processes, formulations, algorithms, customer lists, and commercial strategies — do not benefit from registered IP protection in Turkey, but they are protected under Turkish law through two overlapping frameworks: the unfair competition provisions of the Turkish Commercial Code (TTK Articles 54–57), which prohibit the acquisition, use, and disclosure of trade secrets through illegitimate means; and contractual confidentiality obligations in employment contracts, NDA agreements, and supplier agreements, which create enforceable duties of confidentiality that can be enforced through breach of contract claims. For a trade secret holder to enforce these protections, the holder must have taken reasonable steps to keep the information secret — a trade secret that is not actually treated as secret (because it is accessible to all employees without restriction, or is not marked as confidential, or is disclosed without NDA protection) may lose its protection under the unfair competition analysis. We advise clients on implementing the internal information security practices and contractual confidentiality architecture that create enforceable trade secret protection rather than relying on post-breach litigation. Practice may vary — verify current Turkish court unfair competition standards for trade secret misappropriation claims and the specific internal security measures that courts currently require as evidence of reasonable secrecy before advising on any trade secret protection program.
IP licensing and commercial agreements
A law firm in Istanbul advising on IP licensing agreements must explain that a Turkish IP license agreement must be precisely drafted to avoid interpretive disputes that arise when the scope of the licensed right is not clearly defined. The most common licensing drafting failures we encounter in Turkish IP practice are: failure to specify whether the license is exclusive or non-exclusive (the SMK treats an unspecified license as non-exclusive by default); failure to define the licensed territory with precision (a license for "Turkey" may not cover all of Turkey's administrative regions where there is a specific distribution network concern); failure to specify the duration and what happens to sublicensed rights upon termination of the main license; failure to address quality control obligations for trademark licenses in sufficient specificity (which can affect the trademark's validity if the mark becomes generic due to uncontrolled use); and failure to register trademark licenses at TÜRKPATENT (which is necessary for third-party enforceability). We review each of these dimensions in every license mandate before drafting begins. Practice may vary by authority and year — verify current TÜRKPATENT trademark license registration procedures and the specific content requirements for a valid trademark license registration before finalizing any exclusive trademark license agreement.
An English speaking lawyer in Turkey advising on cross-border technology licensing to or from Turkey must explain that licensing agreements between a Turkish entity and a foreign entity are subject to transfer pricing analysis under Turkish Corporate Tax Law (KVK Article 13) where the parties are related — the royalty rate must be arm's length (consistent with what unrelated parties would negotiate), and a royalty rate that the Turkish Revenue Administration considers below or above market may be assessed as a disguised profit distribution with corresponding tax consequences. For valuable technology license agreements, we coordinate the license structure with the tax analysis to ensure that the agreed royalty rate is supportable against a GİB challenge. We also ensure that Turkish withholding tax obligations on outbound royalty payments are correctly identified and that any applicable double taxation treaty reduction in the withholding rate is properly claimed with appropriate tax residence documentation from the foreign licensor. The commercial litigation Turkey framework — covering dispute resolution for IP licensing agreements — is analyzed in the resource on commercial litigation Turkey. Practice may vary — verify current GİB transfer pricing guidance for IP royalty benchmarking and current Turkish withholding tax rates and DTA reductions applicable to royalty payments before finalizing any cross-border license pricing.
How we work
A best lawyer in Turkey managing an IP mandate begins by mapping the client's IP assets against the available protection instruments — registered rights at TÜRKPATENT, copyright protection under FSEK, trade secret protection through contractual architecture — and identifying the gaps between the current protection and the commercially optimal protection. For established brands, this means a portfolio audit that identifies marks at risk of non-use cancellation, registrations that have drifted from the current form of the brand, and classes that should be added to reflect product line extensions. For technology companies, it means a patent coverage analysis that identifies whether current filings adequately cover the product as it has been developed relative to the original applications. For content creators and software companies, it means a rights chain analysis that confirms ownership of all commercially deployed content. Practice may vary by authority and year — check current guidance from TÜRKPATENT, Ministry of Culture, and applicable Turkish courts before acting on any IP strategy analysis, as procedures and judicial interpretation evolve.
ER&GUN&ER advises Turkish and foreign clients — brands, technology companies, creative professionals, pharmaceutical companies, and individual inventors — on trademark registration and portfolio management, patent prosecution and enforcement, copyright protection and licensing, industrial design filing, trade secret protection, and all categories of IP litigation and TÜRKPATENT administrative proceedings. We work in English throughout all international mandates and coordinate with technical experts, patent attorneys, and foreign co-counsel as required by the specific matter. The Istanbul Bar Association at istanbulbarosu.org.tr provides resources for identifying qualified practitioners. Practice may vary — check current guidance before acting on any information on this page.
Frequently Asked Questions
- Can I register a trademark in Turkey from abroad? Yes — foreign applicants can file trademark applications at TÜRKPATENT through a Turkish representative. We act as local representative for international clients and handle the complete prosecution process under power of attorney.
- What is the opposition window for a published Turkish trademark application? Two months from the publication date in the TÜRKPATENT Official Gazette. This deadline is strict — a late opposition is rejected without assessment of its merits.
- How do I protect a mark that was filed by someone else in Turkey? Depending on the circumstances: a TÜRKPATENT invalidation petition if the mark was registered in bad faith or conflicts with your earlier right; a civil lawsuit for trademark infringement and cancellation if the mark is being used in commerce; or a non-use cancellation petition if the mark has not been genuinely used for five consecutive years.
- What claim scope should a Turkish patent application target? Claims should be broad enough to prevent foreseeable design-arounds but narrow enough to be supported by the description and drawings and to withstand prior art-based invalidity challenges. This balance requires technical and legal analysis before the specification is finalized.
- Can I get an interim injunction against a patent infringer in Turkey without notice? Yes — Turkish IP courts can grant ex parte interim injunctions where disclosure would defeat the purpose of the order. The application requires a patent registration certificate, a specific technical infringement analysis, and urgency evidence.
- Does a trademark license need to be registered at TÜRKPATENT? Yes — to be effective against third parties, a trademark license must be registered at TÜRKPATENT. An unregistered license is binding between the parties but cannot be enforced against third parties who are unaware of it.
- How is software copyright ownership structured in Turkish law? Under FSEK Article 18, software created by an employee in the course of employment belongs to the employer. Software created by independent contractors remains with the creator unless there is a specific written copyright assignment.
- What internal steps are required to create enforceable trade secret protection? The rights holder must take reasonable steps to keep the information secret — including access restrictions, confidentiality markings, NDA agreements with all persons who access the information, and internal policies that treat the information as confidential. An unprotected secret may lose protection under Turkish unfair competition law.
- Is there a transfer pricing concern with IP royalty rates in Turkey? Yes — royalties between related parties must be arm's length under KVK Article 13. A below or above market royalty may be assessed as disguised profit distribution. Cross-border royalty payments also attract Turkish withholding tax, potentially reduced under applicable DTAs.
- Do you work with international IP portfolios? Yes — we coordinate Turkish filings with WIPO (Madrid Protocol for trademarks, PCT for patents, Hague System for designs), EUIPO filings where relevant, and foreign co-counsel for multi-jurisdiction portfolio management and enforcement coordination.
Author: Mirkan Topcu is an attorney registered with the Istanbul Bar Association (Istanbul 1st Bar), Bar Registration No: 67874. His practice focuses on cross-border and high-stakes matters where evidence discipline, procedural accuracy, and risk control are decisive.
He advises brands, technology companies, creative professionals, and innovative enterprises across Intellectual Property Law, Commercial Litigation, IT Law, and cross-border enforcement matters where registration strategy and enforcement precision are decisive.
Education: Istanbul University Faculty of Law (2018); Galatasaray University, LL.M. (2022). LinkedIn: Profile. Istanbul Bar Association: Official website.
