In 2026, the fee for recording a trademark assignment is TRY 5,960 under the fee schedule of TÜRKPATENT (Turkey's patent and trademark office); a full assignment and a partial assignment are the same item in the schedule, and the fee is paid per trademark file. That is not the whole cost: the cost of notary approval, which is a condition of validity for the assignment agreement, and, if you work with an attorney, a service fee must also be taken into account.
In brief:
- Official recordal fee: TRY 5,960 (per trademark; the same for a full and a partial assignment).
- The notary cost is not fixed; it is calculated from the notarial fee tariff according to the value of the agreement and the number of copies.
- Recording a transfer by inheritance costs TRY 5,550, and recording a transfer resulting from a merger/demerger costs TRY 4,360 — these are fee items separate from assignment.
- In a multi-trademark assignment, the fee is multiplied by the number of files; having a single agreement does not change the result.
- The fee schedule is updated every year; before the transaction, the current amount should be checked against the TÜRKPATENT fee schedule.
We explained how an assignment is carried out in our step-by-step assignment guide and how long the process takes in our article on the timeline; this article focuses on the money side alone.
The 2026 Official Fee Schedule: Assignment and Related Items
The items in TÜRKPATENT's 2026 fee schedule relating to a change in ownership of a trademark are as follows:
| Transaction | 2026 fee (per trademark) |
|---|---|
| Recordal of an assignment – partial assignment | TRY 5,960 |
| Recordal of a transfer by inheritance | TRY 5,550 |
| Recordal of a merger, demerger and other structural changes | TRY 4,360 |
| Recordal of a pledge | TRY 6,010 |
| Recordal of a licence (for comparison) | TRY 9,870 |
These items are not alternatives to one another; which fee is payable is determined by the legal event that has taken place. Where there is a purchase, the assignment recordal item applies; where there is a death, the inheritance item; where there is a company merger, the structural change item. Those who choose to let others use the trademark without assigning it pay not the assignment fee but the licence recordal fee.
What Makes Up the Total Cost?
1. The recordal fee (TÜRKPATENT)
This is paid to the Office together with the recordal request; unless it is paid, the assignment is not entered in the register. The amount is independent of the number of classes the trademark covers — recording the assignment of a one-class trademark and of a forty-five-class trademark attracts the same fee. On the other hand, it is sensitive to the number of files: in a portfolio assignment, it is paid separately for each trademark.
2. The notary cost
Because notary approval of the assignment agreement is a condition of validity, this item cannot be skipped. The amount is not fixed; it is calculated under the notarial fee tariff according to the type of transaction, the price stated in the agreement and the number of copies. In high-value assignments, the notary item can easily exceed the Office's fee. For an exact figure, the soundest approach is to ask the notary for a calculation once the draft agreement is ready.
3. Attorney / advisory fee (optional)
Parties resident in Turkey can have the recordal made themselves; for those resident abroad, a trademark attorney is mandatory. Attorney fees vary from firm to firm, and in a well-structured service what you pay for is not merely filling in a form: it is pulling the trademark's register record, checking encumbrances and entries, drafting the agreement in line with the language of the register and following up the recordal. When requesting a quote, ask for the official fee and the service fee to be shown as separate items.
4. Hidden items
- Valuation: If commissioned to provide data for the price negotiation, this is a separate advisory cost; we explained the methods in our article on trademark valuation.
- Preliminary clean-up transactions: If the assignor's trade name/address details in the register are out of date, those records must first be corrected — each with its own fee item.
- Translation and legalisation: Where a foreign party is involved, power of attorney, translation and legalisation costs are added.
Who Pays the Costs?
The law does not designate a party; the allocation is entirely a matter of freedom of contract. Established practice is for the assignee to bear the recordal fee, while the notary cost is either shared or absorbed into the price negotiation. Whichever structure is chosen, two rules stay the same: the allocation must be written expressly into the agreement, and it must be decided who will file the recordal application — the request is made by one of the parties, but if the fee is not paid, the transaction waits to the detriment of both.
2026 Cost Examples by Scenario
| Scenario | Official fee calculation |
|---|---|
| Full assignment of a single trademark | TRY 5,960 |
| Partial assignment of one class of a single trademark | TRY 5,960 (same item; a new file is opened) |
| Assignment of a five-trademark portfolio under a single agreement | 5 × TRY 5,960 = TRY 29,800 |
| Transfer of a trademark to the heirs after a death | TRY 5,550 |
| Transfer of three trademarks to a new company as a result of a merger | 3 × TRY 4,360 = TRY 13,080 |
The notary cost (in a contractual assignment) and any attorney fee are added to the amounts in the table. For the documents and process specific to the inheritance scenario, see Can a Trademark Be Inherited?
The Real Big Item: The Assignment Price Itself
The fee schedule and notary costs are the "transaction costs" of the deal; the real economic item in an assignment is the assignment price paid for the trademark, and no fee schedule sets it. Three approaches are used together in negotiating the price:
- Income approach: A calculation based on the trademark's current turnover, its contribution to the profit margin, or the royalties it would earn if licensed. This is the most widely used method in corporate assignments.
- Market approach: Sales of trademarks in a similar sector and of a similar scale are taken as comparables; since comparable data is limited in Turkey, this is usually a supporting method.
- Cost approach: The cost of building the trademark from scratch (registration, promotion, years of effort) is taken as a floor value.
The risks that push the price down are also part of the negotiation: classes in which the trademark has not been used for five years carry a risk of revocation, encumbrances in the register and ongoing disputes lower the value, and a file approaching the end of its term of protection brings the cost of renewal with it. If you are the buyer, do not sign without translating these issues into the price; if you are the seller, cleaning up your register record before signing directly raises the price.
How and When Is the Official Fee Paid?
The assignment recordal fee is paid online when the recordal request is created through EPATS (TÜRKPATENT's online filing system); a request for which payment has not been completed is not processed. Which party will make the payment should be agreed in the agreement and concentrated in one pair of hands together with the authority to file the application — files in which each side believes "the other one will do it" are the main reason assignments are still unrecorded months after notary approval. The notary cost, by contrast, is paid to the notary at the moment of approval; the two payments are independent of each other.
Do Not Forget the Tax Dimension
The assignment price can have tax consequences for the parties: on the seller's side there is an income/gains dimension, and on the buyer's side a dimension of expensing and amortisation; the agreement's stamp duty liability also varies depending on how the transaction is structured. These items are independent of the fee in the schedule and differ according to the specific case — consult your accountant (financial adviser) before finalising the assignment price and the structure of the agreement. We summarised how the trademark price is tracked in company accounts in our article on accounting entries.
Assignment or Licence? Deciding Through the Lens of Cost
Do not be misled by the fact that recording a licence (TRY 9,870) is more expensive in the fee schedule than recording an assignment; the two transactions answer different questions, and the decision is not made on the basis of a one-off recordal fee. In an assignment, the price for the trademark is paid once and ownership passes permanently; in a licence, ownership stays with the owner, and the party granting use collects licence fees for the term of the agreement. For an owner who wants to build a regular income from the trademark, a licence is the right tool; for a party who wants to take over the trademark entirely and control its future, an assignment is. We covered the contractual structure and pitfalls of the two models in detail in our licence guide; we will also deal with all the ways of letting someone else use a trademark without assigning it in a separate article.
As a middle path, a partial assignment can also be assessed through the lens of cost: you part with only the classes you want to assign and keep your core business under your own registration — the recordal fee stays the same, but the price under negotiation becomes smaller.
4 Common Cost Mistakes
- Building the budget on TRY 5,960 alone. If the notary, attorney and preliminary clean-up items are not factored in, the budget goes off track on signing day.
- Overlooking the number of files in a portfolio assignment. The assumption of "one agreement, one fee" is wrong; the fee is per trademark.
- Leaving the register clean-up until after signing. If preliminary transactions such as correcting the trade name are noticed later, they cause both extra fees and weeks of delay.
- Trying to save on the recordal fee. An assignment that has not been recorded cannot be asserted against third parties; the most expensive scenario is an assignment done on the cheap.
Conclusion
In 2026, the official cost of taking over a trademark by assignment is TRY 5,960; a realistic budget, however, is built together with the notary and any attorney item. The small but critical rules of cost are these: the fee is paid per trademark, a partial assignment brings no discount, inheritance and merger are separate items, and avoiding recordal is not a saving but a risk. Since the fee schedule changes every year, not letting an agreed assignment slip into the end of the year is also a quiet way to save.
Let us work out the real cost of your assignment
Send us the numbers of the trademark(s) to be assigned via our contact page; together we will settle an item-by-item cost breakdown and a transaction timeline based on the number of files, the status in the register and the structure of the agreement. From the agreement through to recordal in the register, our legal protection team handles the process end to end.