Trademark registration in Turkey is available to foreign companies through two routes: a national application filed directly with TÜRKPATENT (the Turkish Patent and Trademark Office), or an international application under the Madrid Protocol that designates Turkey. Whichever route you choose, under Article 160(3) of Industrial Property Law No. 6769 (SMK) an applicant resident abroad can act before TÜRKPATENT only through a registered Turkish trademark attorney; steps taken without one are deemed not to have been taken.
The sections below compare the two routes and cover the power of attorney, priority and non-Latin script rules, the 2026 official fees in Turkish lira, and the risks foreign brand owners most often face in the Turkish market.
Can Foreign Companies Register a Trademark in Turkey?
Yes. Under Article 3 SMK, protection is available not only to Turkish citizens and to persons domiciled or conducting business in Turkey, but also to persons entitled to file under the Paris Convention or the Agreement Establishing the World Trade Organization (WTO), and, on the basis of reciprocity, to nationals of states that grant protection to Turkish citizens. The vast majority of companies engaged in international trade fall within this framework.
A foreign applicant, in this context, means a natural or legal person whose domicile or seat is outside Turkey. A subsidiary incorporated in Turkey, even if foreign-owned, is a Turkish legal entity and can file directly in its own name. Deciding which group company will own the Turkish mark is therefore a decision to take at the outset: groups that keep their portfolio centralized usually file in the name of the parent company and license the mark to the Turkish subsidiary.
In Turkey, trademark protection arises from registration (Article 7(1) SMK). A registration in the home country, international reputation or years of sales in Turkey do not replace a Turkish registration on their own. That is why trademark registration in Turkey should be planned before market entry; appointing a distributor, exhibiting at a trade fair or launching e-commerce sales should come after the filing, not before it.
National Application or Madrid Designation of Turkey?
If Turkey is the only target, or if there is no secure basic mark in the home country, a direct national application is usually the better choice; if protection is sought in several countries and the basic mark is safe, designating Turkey through the Madrid Protocol is generally more efficient. The differences are summarized below:
| Criterion | National application with TÜRKPATENT | Madrid designation of Turkey |
|---|---|---|
| Where it is filed | Directly with TÜRKPATENT (EPATS), through a Turkish attorney | With WIPO, through the office of origin |
| Prerequisite | None | An application or registration in the home country (the basic mark) |
| Language | Turkish application form and list of goods and services | WIPO languages: English, French or Spanish |
| Official fees | TÜRKPATENT fee schedule, in TRY | WIPO basic fee plus an individual fee for Turkey, in Swiss francs |
| Local attorney | Mandatory from filing | Not needed to file; mandatory for provisional refusals, oppositions and other proceedings before the Office |
| Dependency | None; the file stands on its own | Dependent on the basic mark for five years from registration |
| Later management | Renewals, assignments and recordals at TÜRKPATENT | Renewals and changes centralized through WIPO |
| Best suited to | A Turkey-specific list, a mark adapted to Turkish, a risky basic mark | A multi-country portfolio with a secure home registration |
When does a national application make more sense?
If the home application still faces opposition or refusal risk, a Madrid file lives in the shadow of that risk for five years, whereas a national application stands on its own feet. An international registration must reproduce the same sign as the basic mark and stay within its list of goods and services. If the brand will carry a Turkish element or a different logo in Turkey, or if the list needs to be built around your Turkish business plan, the national route is far more flexible. We explain how to draft the Turkish list in our guide to the list of goods and services.
When does a Madrid designation make more sense?
If the company wants to protect the same mark in many countries, a single application, a single language, a single payment and centralized renewal offer real administrative savings. Turkey can also be added later to an international registration that is already in force. How the Madrid System works in general is covered in international trademark registration and the Madrid Protocol; which countries belong to the system is set out in our list of Madrid Protocol member countries.
How Do the Local Attorney and Power of Attorney Rules Work?
A company resident abroad cannot file with TÜRKPATENT itself: Article 160(3) SMK provides that such persons may be represented only by trademark or patent attorneys, and that steps taken without an attorney are deemed not to have been taken. Once an attorney is appointed, all proceedings are carried out by the attorney and service on the attorney counts as service on the applicant (Article 160(4)). Every letter from the Office therefore lands on your attorney's desk as a notification that starts a deadline running.
A trademark attorney, in the Turkish system, means a person entered in the register of attorneys kept by TÜRKPATENT and authorized to represent applicants before the Office. The attorney's role and how to choose one are covered in detail in our article on trademark attorneys in Turkey.
The form of the power of attorney is governed by Article 124 of the Regulation on the Implementation of the Industrial Property Law: the original written power of attorney showing the attorney's authority, the scope of representation and the date, or a copy certified as true by the attorney, is filed; where the Office considers it necessary, it may ask for the original or a notarized copy. For acts that entail a loss of rights, such as surrendering an application or withdrawing an opposition, these powers must be stated expressly. Because further formalities such as notarization, an apostille or translation can vary with the transaction, the safest course is to prepare the power of attorney in the form your attorney requests.
The National Application, Step by Step
When it is handled through the national route, a foreign applicant's trademark registration in Turkey differs from a domestic filing only in the attorney and document preparation:
- Clearance search in the Turkish register: Identical and similar marks are searched in the TÜRKPATENT register, taking Turkish pronunciation and phonetic similarity into account.
- Appointing an attorney: A Turkish trademark attorney on the official register is authorized by a power of attorney.
- Turkish list of goods and services: The scope is drafted in Turkish in line with the Nice Classification (Article 11(3) SMK).
- Representation of the mark: If the mark contains non-Latin characters, their Latin-alphabet equivalent is added (Article 11(1)(f)).
- Priority claim (if any): Claimed together with the application, within six months of the first filing in the home country.
- Filing and formal examination: The filing date is the date, hour and minute on which the application is received; any notified deficiency must be cured within two months (Article 15).
- Examination on absolute grounds and publication: An application with no obstacle is published in the Official Trademark Bulletin, which opens a two-month opposition period (Articles 16 and 18).
- Registration: The registration fee is paid and the mark is entered in the register; if proof of payment is not submitted in time, the application is removed from processing (Article 22).
In Turkey, priority between competing filings is determined down to the minute of receipt. Of two applications filed on the same day, the one received first ranks first, so once preparation is complete the filing should not be held back.
Priority and Non-Latin Characters
Two technical questions come up in almost every foreign filing: whether the home-country filing date can be carried over to Turkey, and how to file a mark that is not written in Latin script.
Priority: six months to file, three months to submit the document
A company that has made a regular first filing in a Paris Convention or WTO country can rely on that filing date if it applies in Turkey for the same mark and the same goods or services within six months (Article 12(1) SMK). Priority is claimed together with the application and on payment of the claim fee; if the priority document is not submitted within three months of the Turkish filing date, the claim is deemed not to have been made (Article 13(1)). Article 6 of the Regulation also requires the original document together with a Turkish translation certified by a sworn translator.
A priority right means that the date of a first filing in one country is carried over, within a set period, as the priority date for filings made in other countries. The mechanism and the most common mistakes are explained in our article on priority rights in trademark registration.
Non-Latin scripts and Turkish pronunciation
If the mark contains Cyrillic, Arabic, Chinese, Japanese or any other non-Latin characters, the application must give their equivalent in the Latin alphabet (Article 11(1)(f) SMK). The transliteration is not a mere formality: it shapes how the mark is read in the register and which earlier marks it is compared with during the similarity assessment.
For marks written in Latin script, the risk lies in pronunciation. Turkish is largely read as it is written, so a mark written in English or German may be pronounced differently by Turkish consumers, and that pronunciation may create similarity with a Turkish mark already on the register. How foreign words are assessed for meaning and descriptiveness is covered in our article on registering foreign-word trademarks.
2026 Official Fees: What a Turkish Registration Costs
In a national application, official fees are paid to TÜRKPATENT in Turkish lira; there is no separate fee schedule for foreign applicants, and the same items apply as for domestic filings. Under TÜRKPATENT's 2026 trademark fee schedule, the core items are:
| Item (fee code) | 2026 fee |
|---|---|
| Application, one class (02.01.01) | TRY 2,820 |
| Second class (02.01.02) | TRY 2,820 |
| Each third and subsequent class (02.01.28) | TRY 3,150 |
| Registration fee (02.01.03) | TRY 7,010 |
| Priority right recordal (02.01.14) | TRY 3,420 |
| Opposition to a published application (02.01.17) | TRY 1,150 |
| Renewal, up to two classes (02.01.23) | TRY 8,730 |
Worked example: the official total for a two-class application through to registration is TRY 2,820 + TRY 2,820 + TRY 7,010 = TRY 12,650; adding a third class brings it to TRY 15,800. For certain class selections linked to retail services in Class 35, a lower item (02.01.34) applies to the third and subsequent classes. These amounts exclude attorney fees, and because the schedule is updated every year, current amounts should be checked against the TÜRKPATENT fee schedule before filing. Every item is broken down in our article on trademark registration fees in Turkey for 2026.
Under the Madrid route, WIPO fees apply instead of the TÜRKPATENT schedule: a fee for each designated contracting party is added to the basic fee. According to WIPO's list of Madrid Union members, Turkey is one of the contracting parties that charge an individual fee rather than taking a standard share. Amounts are set in Swiss francs and vary with the number of classes, so the current figure should be calculated with WIPO's fee calculator.
How Does a Madrid Designation of Turkey Work?
Under Article 14 SMK, an international application designating Turkey has the same effect as an application filed directly with TÜRKPATENT and is deemed to have been filed at the first hour and minute of the international filing date. According to WIPO's list, Turkey has been party to the Madrid Protocol since January 1, 1999. The Turkey-specific points of the procedure are:
- Examination: WIPO forwards the designation to TÜRKPATENT, which examines it like a national application on absolute grounds (including identical or indistinguishably similar earlier marks), publishes an acceptable designation in the Bulletin and opens it to third-party oppositions.
- Refusal period: Turkey has declared an 18-month time limit for notifying a refusal; a refusal resulting from an opposition may be notified even after that period.
- Provisional refusal: The refusal is notified through WIPO. Because the response and appeal are filed before TÜRKPATENT, an owner resident abroad must work with a Turkish attorney at this stage. Article 20 SMK sets a two-month period from notification for appeals against the Office's decisions; confirm with your attorney immediately from which date the period runs.
- Dependency and transformation: The international registration depends on the basic mark for five years from its registration date; if the basic mark falls in that period, protection in Turkey falls too. Under Article 27 of the Regulation, transformation into a national registration in Turkey can be requested within three months of the cancellation of the international registration.
- Replacement: If the same mark is also registered nationally in Turkey, the replacement of the national registration by the international registration can be recorded in the register at the owner's request (Article 26 of the Regulation).
When planning protection through the Madrid System for several countries, the real measure of risk for the Turkish designation is how solid the basic mark will remain during that five-year period.
Oppositions, Proof of Use and the Use Requirement
A foreign brand owner can end up on either side in Turkey: its own application may be opposed, or it may spot a similar application in the Bulletin and oppose it. An opposition to a published application is filed in writing, with reasons, within two months of publication, and the opposition fee must be paid within the same period (Article 18 SMK). The only reliable way to catch that window is to watch the Bulletin regularly.
Requests for proof of use
If the mark relied on in an opposition had been registered for at least five years on the filing date of the opposed application, the applicant can require the opponent to prove use during the preceding five years (Article 19(2)). Foreign marks that have long been registered in Turkey but are not actually sold there are exposed at this point: if use cannot be proven, the opposition fails for the goods and services concerned.
The use requirement follows the same logic. A trademark that has not been put to genuine use in Turkey within five years of registration without a justified reason, or whose use has been suspended for an uninterrupted period of five years, can be revoked by TÜRKPATENT on request (Articles 9 and 26). Use with the owner's consent counts as use by the owner (Article 9(3)), and affixing the mark to goods or packaging solely for export also counts as use (Article 9(2)(b)). This is why invoices, catalogs and advertising for sales made through a distributor or subsidiary should be archived separately for the Turkish file.
Risks Specific to the Turkish Market
Most of the problems foreign brands run into in Turkey arise because trademark registration in Turkey was left until after market entry. The most common scenarios are:
- Bad-faith pre-emptive filings: A third party may file the mark before the brand reaches Turkey. Bad-faith applications can be defeated through opposition (Article 6(9)) or an invalidation action (Article 25); evidence and deadlines are covered in our article on bad-faith trademark filings.
- A distributor registering the mark in its own name: An unauthorized application by a commercial agent or representative is refused on the owner's opposition (Article 6(2)); if it has already been registered, the owner can ask the court to prohibit use and order the registration to be transferred (Article 10).
- Trade name conflicts: The trade registry is separate from the trademark register, but a registered trademark allows the owner to prohibit use of a similar sign as a trade name or business name (Article 7(3)(e)).
- Relying on reputation: Marks that are well known within the meaning of Article 6bis of the Paris Convention can ground an opposition even without registration (Article 6(4)), but proving that status is demanding and the outcome is uncertain.
- Customs and criminal enforcement: Customs seizure relies on registered rights, and criminal penalties for trademark infringement require the mark to be registered in Turkey (Article 30(5)). How the customs mechanism works is explained in our article on customs seizure of counterfeit goods.
Conclusion
Key takeaways:
- A company resident abroad handles every step before TÜRKPATENT through a registered trademark attorney (Article 160(3) SMK).
- If Turkey is the only target, a national application usually wins; for a multi-country portfolio, designate Turkey via Madrid and factor in the five-year dependency.
- Priority must be claimed within six months of the home filing, and the priority document filed within three months of the Turkish filing.
- In 2026, the official cost of a two-class national application, including registration, is TRY 12,650; Madrid fees are calculated with WIPO's fee calculator.
- File before appointing distributors, exhibiting or selling online; after registration, use the mark in Turkey and keep an evidence archive.
Would you like to secure your trademark in Turkey?
Send us your mark, your home-country filing details and your plans for the Turkish market through our contact page. Our team, working with trademark attorneys authorized before TÜRKPATENT, will run a clearance search in the Turkish register, compare the national and Madrid routes for your case, and handle the whole process from the power of attorney to the registration certificate.
