Yes — a trademark can be assigned to more than one person, and there are two different legal routes for doing so. The first is co-ownership in shares: the trademark is assigned to several people jointly and each of them owns it in an agreed proportion. The second is partial assignment: the trademark's scope is split and different classes of goods/services are assigned to different people. The rule is the same for both routes: a notarised assignment agreement and recordal in the register of TÜRKPATENT (Turkey's patent and trademark office).
In short:
- A single registration can carry several owners; the shares are determined by agreement.
- Through a partial assignment, a trademark can be split class by class; each part becomes a separate file in the register.
- What is not possible is for the same sign to be the subject of two independent registrations for the same scope.
- In a trademark with multiple owners, dispositions are as a rule made together; a written protocol is essential.
- In most scenarios there is a healthier third route: assigning the trademark to a jointly owned company, or a single owner + licence model.
We explained the general rules of assignment in our guide How to Assign a Trademark in Turkey; this article focuses solely on the "more than one person" scenario.
Route 1: Co-Ownership in Shares — Acquiring a Trademark Together
A trademark registration is not reserved for a single person; two siblings, two business partners, or an investor and a founder can be owners of the same trademark. In the assignment agreement the assignees are named together, the share ratios are written down, and on recordal in the register the trademark is entered in the names of all the assignees. If no ratio is written, the shares are deemed to be equal.
How are decisions taken?
The essence of co-ownership in shares is this: dispositions affecting the trademark as a whole — assignment, licensing, pledging, withdrawing from a lawsuit — as a rule require the co-owners to act together. A licence granted with the signature of a single co-owner has no effect without the participation of the others. The co-owners can agree on a different arrangement in a written protocol between them (for example, a majority being sufficient for certain decisions, or one of them being authorised to carry out transactions); if there is no protocol, the general rules apply and in practice every important step requires unanimity.
Is it possible to assign a share?
As a rule, yes: a share is also a transferable asset, and the assignment of a share is recorded in the register. However, freely transferable shares mean a risk for the other co-owners of "I don't know who I will be partners with tomorrow". Well-structured partnerships solve this in the protocol: a right of first refusal, the consent of the other co-owners to an assignment, or mutual buy-out mechanisms.
Route 2: Partial Assignment — Splitting the Trademark and Dividing It Up
The second route is to split the scope rather than share ownership. The goods and services covered by the registration are separated: the clothing class is assigned to one person and the cosmetics class to another — or part of it stays with the assignor. For each assigned part, a new trademark file is opened in the register; from that moment the files live on with separate renewal calendars and independent fates.
The strength of this model is independence: nobody is left dependent on anybody else's consent. Its weak point is the market — if the same sign circulates in different hands in neighbouring sectors, consumers cannot tell the source apart, and the reputation of the trademark is damaged for everyone by a single owner's mistake. A partial assignment makes sense between groups of goods/services that do not overlap; in neighbouring sectors it is dangerous.
Don't Confuse It with a "Collective Mark"
The similarity of the names in Turkish produces serious conceptual confusion. Co-ownership in shares means that the ownership of a single trademark is held by several people. A collective mark, by contrast, is a separate type of mark defined in the law: a mark used by the members of associations of producers or service providers in accordance with technical regulations — not a model of shared ownership but a model of a community of use. If what you are looking for is "owning the trademark together with my sibling", the collective mark is not the institution you need; we explained both models in detail in Collective and Certification Marks.
Multiple Ownership by Inheritance: A Partnership Nobody Chose
A significant proportion of trademarks with multiple owners arise not by agreement but by death: the trademark passes to the heirs, and until the estate is divided the heirs own the trademark jointly (in common among the heirs) — a regime even stricter than co-ownership in shares, because as a rule every transaction requires the participation of all the heirs. We covered the routes for converting this temporary regime into co-ownership in shares, allocating the trademark to one heir or selling it in Can a Trademark Be Inherited? The lesson of the partnership nobody chose also sheds light on chosen partnerships: every form of multiple ownership set up without written rules is a postponed dispute.
The Co-Ownership Protocol: What Happens If It Is Not Written
The register shows only who the owners are; how they will own the trademark is for the parties to write down. The protocol accompanying the assignment agreement should contain at least the following:
- Rights of use: On which products, in which channels and in which territory can each co-owner use the trademark?
- Quality standard: The trademark's reputation is a shared asset; minimum quality and visual identity rules should be binding on everyone.
- Income and costs: In what proportion is licence income shared; who contributes, and in what proportion, to renewal, monitoring and litigation costs?
- Decision-making mechanism: Which decisions require unanimity and which a majority; who conducts transactions before the Office?
- Restrictions on assigning shares: A right of first refusal, a consent requirement, and what happens to a share on death.
- Exit and deadlock: A buy-out mechanism in case of disagreement, the valuation method, and the dispute resolution route.
The Practical Risks of a Trademark with Multiple Owners
- Deadlock. In a structure requiring unanimity, the silence of a single co-owner blocks licensing opportunities and defensive moves.
- A calendar nobody owns. Two co-owners each assuming that "the other one will pay" the renewal fee are a recipe for a late renewal with a surcharge, or even loss of rights.
- Imbalance in use. If only one co-owner actually uses the trademark, the balance between effort and value breaks down over time; as a rule, genuine use by one of the owners keeps the trademark alive as far as the use requirement is concerned, but commercial fairness can only be established through a protocol.
- Erosion of value in a dispute. While a dispute between co-owners continues, the trademark is priced as a "problem file" in investment, assignment and licensing negotiations.
Often the Better Alternative: A Single Owner + an Agreement
Experience shows this: underneath the wish to "register the trademark in both our names" there is very often a search not for ownership but for security — and security can be built with cleaner tools than a jointly held registration:
- Assign the trademark to a jointly owned company. If the parties already do business together, the trademark is assigned to the company in which their shareholdings are set out; the decision-making mechanism then benefits from the well-established rules of company law. This is the most common and the healthiest model.
- A single owner + a comprehensive licence. Ownership stays with one party, and the other party is protected by a strong licence recorded in the register; the details of the structure are in our licence agreement guide.
If an assignment in shares is still the preferred choice — and there are legitimate reasons, such as family asset planning or an investor's condition — no signature made without a protocol can protect the parties.
Three Real Scenarios, Three Different Right Answers
Scenario 1 — A family trademark is to go to two siblings. A father wants to assign his trademark to his two children during his lifetime; both of them are involved in the business. An assignment in shares is legitimate here: 50%-50% shares, but always with a protocol — areas of use, sharing of costs and what happens to a share on death should be written down. Alternatively, the trademark is assigned to the family company and the children are given shares in the company; in the long run this is the structure that produces the least conflict.
Scenario 2 — An investor says "I want a share in the trademark too". The investor's real need is not to appear in the register but the assurance that the trademark cannot be sold separately from the company. The right answer is often to assign the trademark to the company and protect the investor through a shareholding in the company; leaving the trademark in an individual's name and assigning a share of it to the investor needlessly entangles two legal regimes.
Scenario 3 — Two former partners are parting ways. One will carry on running the restaurant, while the other wants to sell packaged products under the same name. Co-ownership in shares is a guaranteed fight here; the right tool is a partial assignment — the service classes stay with one party, the product classes with the other, and the protocol sets out how each side will use the visual identity. The closer the sectors become, the harder this model gets too; in that case it is safer for one party to take over the trademark entirely and grant the other a licence.
Conclusion
A trademark can be assigned to more than one person: either ownership is shared or the scope is split. Legally, both are ordinary assignment transactions taking a few weeks; the real work is writing down the rules for the shared life that follows before signing. Three questions will clarify your decision: will the parties use the trademark together (co-ownership in shares + protocol), in separate fields (partial assignment), or are they in fact setting up a joint business (assignment to a company)?
Structuring an assignment to multiple owners?
Share the parties and the intended model of use with us via our contact page; we will compare the options of assignment in shares, partial assignment and assignment to a company for your particular file, and put together the assignment agreement and the co-ownership protocol with you. Our legal protection team handles the process from the notary through to recordal in the register.