The short answer should put your mind at rest: a change in the trademark owner's name does not invalidate the registration. When a company changes its trade name, its legal personality stays the same — the owner of the trademark has not changed, only its name has. The trademark number, representation, scope and priority date all live on unchanged. The only transaction required is updating the owner's name in the TÜRKPATENT register (TÜRKPATENT is Turkey's patent and trademark office) — and this is a far simpler recordal than an assignment.
In brief:
- A change of trade name is not an assignment: no notarised agreement is needed, and the owner is the same.
- No new application is needed; a recordal on the existing file is enough.
- There is no statutory deadline for the recordal; but as long as the register still shows the old name, every transaction stalls.
- The 2026 fee schedule has no separate fee item for a change of name, legal form or address.
- The supporting document is the Turkish Trade Registry Gazette, and the channel is EPATS (TÜRKPATENT's online filing system).
The answer to the question "Aren't a company's trade name and its trademark the same thing anyway?" is the subject of a separate article: Does a Company Name Change Affect a Trademark Registration? This guide is for those who will actually carry out the transaction.
What Stays the Same When the Owner's Name Changes?
First, the reassurance list — none of the following is affected by a change of name:
- Trademark number and file: The same file continues under the same number.
- Priority date: The seniority derived from the filing date is preserved in full.
- Term of protection: The 10-year calendar is unaffected by the change; the renewal date stays exactly where it is.
- Scope: The list of classes remains unchanged.
- Agreements: Licence and pledge entries recorded in the register live on together with the file.
The only thing that changes is a single line in the register: the owner's name. But that line matters more than people think.
What Happens If the Trademark Register Is Not Updated?
The recordal is not tied to a mandatory deadline; the risk is not a penalty but gridlock. As long as the register shows the old name:
- Renewal runs into friction. The name of the person requesting renewal does not match the name in the register; you end up dealing with a correction just as the window is closing.
- The chain of assignment breaks. When you want to sell the trademark, the name in the agreement differs from the name in the register; the change of name must be recorded first and only then the assignment — a single transaction turns into two.
- Questions of identity arise in oppositions and lawsuits. When you, as the opposing party, do not appear as the "owner of record", you lose time proving your identity before the merits are even reached.
- Notices fall into a void. Notifications relating to the Office and to your trademark go to the old records; finding out about opposition deadlines only when it is already too late is the typical outcome of this scenario.
The right practice is clear: as soon as the change has been registered in the trade registry, the trademark register is updated the same week. Adding a "trademark and patent records" line to the checklist of the accountant and legal team handling the change of name is the cheapest insurance against this oversight.
Recording a Change of Name in the Trademark Register: Step by Step
1. Prepare the supporting document
The Turkish Trade Registry Gazette entry showing the change of name is the foundation of the transaction. For trademarks owned by individuals (a change of first name or surname), the basis is the civil registry records.
2. File the request through EPATS
After logging in via e-Devlet (Turkey's e-government portal), a request for a change in owner details is opened on EPATS; the type of change (name, legal form, address) is selected and the supporting document is uploaded. Because the request runs through the owner, it can cover all your relevant trademark files at once — make sure to include files still at the application stage in the inventory as well.
3. Confirm the fee position
The official 2026 fee schedule contains no separate fee item for recording a change of name, legal form or address; if any amount is payable at the time of the request, EPATS will show it. Transfers resulting from a merger or demerger fall outside this scope — they are subject to the structural change item in the schedule (TRY 4,360 in 2026).
4. Verify that the recordal has been entered
After the transaction, check in the register view that the new name appears on every file. This check catches the half-finished records produced by the assumption "we filed the request, so it must be done".
Has the Name Changed or the Owner? Choose the Right Transaction
Events that look alike have very different consequences in the register:
| Event | Has the owner changed? | Correct transaction | Supporting document |
|---|---|---|---|
| Change of trade name | No | Recordal of change of name | Turkish Trade Registry Gazette |
| Change of legal form (Ltd→A.Ş., i.e. limited company to joint-stock company) | No — the legal personality continues | Recordal of change of legal form | Turkish Trade Registry Gazette |
| Merger / demerger | Yes — a new legal entity | Recordal of structural change (TRY 4,360) | Trade registry documents |
| Sale of the trademark | Yes | Recordal of assignment (TRY 5,960) | Notarised agreement |
| Death of the owner | Yes — the heirs | Recordal of transfer by inheritance (TRY 5,550) | Certificate of inheritance |
What the first two rows have in common is that the owner remains legally the same — which is why no notary, no agreement and no assignment fee is needed. In the last three rows the owner does change, and each works under its own regime. The most common mistake is to treat a change of legal form or a change of name as an "assignment" and go through an unnecessary procedure — or, conversely, to treat a merger as a simple name update.
An Edge Case: When the Trade Name Is Part of the Trademark's Image
The recordal updates the owner's name; it cannot touch the representation of the trademark. If your logo shows the old trade name — if the wording "Yılmaz Gıda San. Tic. Ltd. Şti." (a typical Turkish limited company name) is part of the image — recording the change of name does not solve the problem in the shop window: the representation in the register continues to carry the old name, while the look bearing the new name is unregistered. At this intersection the logo change regime comes into play: a new application for the new look. The lesson should be learned from the outset — embedding a trade name in a trademark's image turns every corporate change into a registration operation.
Three Real-World Scenarios
Scenario 1 — A change made six years earlier surfaces in the renewal window. The company changed its trade name in 2020, and the trademark register was never updated. When the renewal window opens in 2026, the name of the person requesting renewal does not match the name in the register; the change of name has to be recorded first, and the renewal afterwards. Because the problem was spotted at the start of the window, the damage is limited to a few weeks of rushing around — had it been left to the final week, the bill could have stretched as far as the late renewal fee.
Scenario 2 — Mistaking a change of legal form for an assignment. A family business converting its limited company into a joint-stock company has a notary draw up an assignment agreement, reasoning that "the trademark must now pass to the A.Ş.". Yet in a change of legal form the legal personality continues unchanged; the only thing needed is a recordal of the change of legal form. The notary costs and the whole assignment set-up are entirely unnecessary — and, on top of that, the appearance of an "assignment from the company to itself" creates confusion in the register.
Scenario 3 — Mistaking a merger for a name update. Two companies merge, and the absorbing company requests a simple recordal on the grounds that "our name has changed". Yet the trademarks of the absorbed company are passing over from a different legal entity; the correct transaction is a recordal of structural change based on trade registry documents. A file opened with the wrong request drags on for months through rounds of corrections.
Checklist for a Change of Trade Name
- Trademark inventory: Registered trademarks plus those still at the application stage; have them all updated in a single request.
- Foreign registrations: The recordal in Turkey stops at the border. For Madrid registrations, the owner details are updated with WIPO; national registrations require action office by office — see our Madrid Protocol guide.
- Agreements: The party's name in licence, franchise and dealership agreements should be updated by an addendum; for licences recorded in the register, the recorded details should be checked.
- Platform and customs records: The owner details in marketplace brand registrations and in the customs recordal are renewed through their own separate processes.
- Attorney record: If you work with an attorney, confirm that the power of attorney relationship continues under the new name.
Conclusion
A change in the trademark owner's name is not a crisis but a piece of register maintenance that should not be put off: the registration lives on with its full force, but until that line in the register is updated, that force is kept waiting at the door in every transaction. The formula has three steps: have the recordal made through EPATS as soon as the Turkish Trade Registry Gazette entry is published, review the inventory (including applications and foreign registrations) in one go, and switch to the logo regime in the exceptional case where the name is embedded in the trademark's image. That is all there is to it — there is no need to go to a notary in the belief that this is an assignment, nor to reset your seniority in the belief that a new application is required.
Has your trade name changed?
Send us your new trade name and your trademark file numbers via our contact page; we will review all of your register records (including applications and any foreign registrations) and complete the updates in a single round — and if a renewal or assignment is coming up, we will set the timetable around it.