Trademark registration is not a certificate you obtain once and shelve. One of the least understood but most damaging rules in Turkish trademark law is this: you can lose a trademark you don't use. And since 2024, this process runs directly before TÜRKPATENT instead of the courts, which makes it considerably faster. This article covers the five-year rule, the "genuine use" standard, and how to protect yourself.
What Does the Rule Say?
Under Industrial Property Law No. 6769, a registered trademark can be cancelled if, without a justified reason, it has not been put to genuine use in Turkey in respect of the goods or services it is registered for within five years of the registration date, or if its use has been suspended for an uninterrupted period of five years.
The logic behind the rule is simple: if the register fills up with marks that are never actually used, businesses that genuinely operate can't find available names. The law ends the rights of those who don't use their marks in order to keep the register alive.
The Critical Detail: The Clock Starts from the Registration Date
A very common miscalculation is assuming the period starts from the filing date. The correct answer is the registration date. Given that filing and registration are typically 6–12 months apart, in practice you have roughly 6 years of breathing room from the filing date.
The second detail is that this period doesn't "run once and finish." If you use the mark for three years and then stop for an uninterrupted five years, the cancellation risk reopens. In other words, the use requirement isn't limited to the first five years of registration — it's an obligation that runs for the life of the mark.
What Counts as "Genuine Use"?
The law doesn't look for just any use — it looks for genuine use. In practice, the following criteria are assessed together:
- Real commercial purpose: Use must aim to create or maintain market share. Token sales made purely to avoid cancellation ("use for show") are not accepted.
- Continuity: A single invoice is generally not enough; use is expected to show a certain regularity.
- Scale: The size of the sector and the nature of the product are taken into account. A few sales a year of heavy industrial machinery may be considered genuine, while the same volume for a consumer product may not be.
- Use as a trademark: The sign has to be used in a way that indicates the product's origin. Simply having the company name printed on an invoice does not count as trademark use.
- Geographic scope: Use has to take place in Turkey. Use abroad alone is not, as a rule, sufficient for a Turkish registration. Manufacturing and labelling in Turkey for export purposes does count as use.
Does Using the Mark in a Modified Form Count?
Yes, within limits. Forms of use that don't alter the mark's distinctive character are also accepted as use. Changing the colour of your registered logo or making small typographic updates, for instance, causes no problem.
But removing a word from the trademark name, altering the element that carries its distinctiveness, or merging the mark entirely into a new sign that renders the old one invisible sits in risky territory. If you're carrying out a full rebrand, filing a separate application for the new version is the safest route.
It's also worth noting that use by a third party with the trademark owner's permission — for example, use by a licensee or franchisee — counts as use on the owner's behalf.
Where Are Cancellation Requests Filed? The 2024 Change
For many years, cancellation requests for non-use were heard by the intellectual and industrial property courts. Under the IPL's transitional provisions, this power passed to TÜRKPATENT as of 10 January 2024. Once the implementing regulation was published, the process became operational in practice.
The practical consequences of this are:
- Cancellation requests can now be filed through an administrative application, without court fees or years of litigation.
- The process has become shorter, so the likelihood of facing a cancellation request has risen.
- The trademark owner is given a period to submit evidence; a party unable to prove use loses the right.
This change has also weakened practices built around negotiating over dormant trademarks. When a similar mark is blocking your way, investigating whether it's actually in use is now a realistic strategy.
Partial Cancellation: Only the Unused Portion Falls Away, Not the Whole Mark
Non-use is assessed not at the level of the trademark as a whole but good by good and service by service. If a mark registered in five classes is found to be used in only two, a partial cancellation decision can be issued for the remaining three. The mark survives, but its scope narrows.
This has two practical consequences:
- At the filing stage: Padding out the scope "just in case" becomes an automatic weakness five years later. Writing a realistic scope is stronger in the long run.
- At the defence stage: An owner facing a cancellation request can save the items they can prove. This is why it matters to organise your evidence file class by class.
How Do You Tell Whether a Competing Mark Is Dormant?
When you run into a mark blocking your way, you can run a simple preliminary check before pursuing cancellation:
- Is the owner's website and social media active, and does the mark appear on product images?
- Is the company active in the trade registry, or is it in liquidation?
- Do products sold under the mark show up on marketplaces and in e-commerce search results?
- Is the mark one of dozens of similar registrations held by the same owner? (Stockpiling a portfolio can itself be a signal that strengthens a presumption of non-use.)
- Has more than five years passed since the registration date?
These indicators aren't conclusive on their own, but they're a good starting point for assessing whether a cancellation request is reasonable. Commissioning a professional use investigation before making a final decision saves you from wasted time and expense.
Requesting Proof of Use During Opposition Proceedings
The use requirement has a second side, which surfaces during opposition proceedings. When a trademark owner opposes your application and the mark they rely on has been registered for more than five years, you have the right to request proof of use. If the opposing party cannot prove use, their opposition is rejected.
This is an extremely effective tool on the defence side. We cover what to do when facing an opposition in How to File a Trademark Opposition and How to Appeal a Trademark Refusal.
Build Your Use File Starting Today
By the time a cancellation request arrives, it's too late to start gathering evidence. A simple but effective archiving routine we recommend to trademark owners:
- Invoices: Dated sales invoices where the trademark name appears in the product description. Choose examples spread across multiple years.
- Packaging and labels: Dated production photographs, print orders, label printing invoices.
- Promotion: Advertising invoices, catalogue PDFs, dated screenshots of social media posts.
- Website: Dated page records from archiving services, domain name registration certificate.
- Trade fairs and events: Participation contracts, booth photographs, press releases.
- Contracts: Dealership, franchise, licence and supply agreements.
A business that keeps this file updated every year can turn a cancellation request in its favour within a few weeks.
The Concept of Justified Reason
The law does not withdraw protection where non-use rests on a justified reason. An import ban, a product's licensing process not yet being complete, a state of emergency, or commercial obstacles beyond the trademark owner's control can fall within this category. Mere economic difficulty or "the time just hasn't come yet," however, is not accepted as a justified reason.
The test is this: the obstacle must be outside the trademark owner's control, must relate directly to the mark, and must render use genuinely impossible or unreasonable — not merely inconvenient. In sectors subject to licensing, such as pharmaceuticals or medical devices, a waiting period is a typical justified reason; postponing a marketing budget is not.
Steps You Can Take Without Waiting for the Five-Year Mark
The cheapest way to manage non-use risk is never to create it in the first place:
- Keep your scope realistic. Write down the areas you'll actually enter; adding classes "just in case" creates weakness in the long run.
- Set a calendar for planned areas. If a class hasn't been entered within two years, either start operating in it or consider simplifying the scope.
- Grant licences. If you won't use the mark yourself, use by a third party you've authorised counts as use on your behalf.
- Document your use. Make sure invoices and images clearly show the trademark; an invoice that just says "product code" is weak evidence of use.
Keep Your Trademark Active — Let Us Measure the Risk
The use requirement means managing your trademark portfolio like an asset. Knowing which classes you're actually active in, which parts of your scope are at risk, and how many competing marks are dormant gives you both a defensive and an offensive strategy.
Webx analyses the use risk in your trademark portfolio and prepares your evidence file if you face a cancellation request. Explore our legal protection service or contact us for a portfolio assessment.