The Official Trademark Bulletin is the official publication in which TÜRKPATENT announces to the public the trademark applications that have passed examination and register entries such as registrations, renewals and assignments; the Office uses the spelling "Resmi Marka Bülteni" in the titles of its issues. The date on which an application is published in the Bulletin starts the two-month opposition period for third parties, and that period runs without anyone being notified separately.
This guide covers what is published in the Turkish Official Trademark Bulletin, which legal deadlines it triggers, how an issue is organized, how a single entry is read using international INID codes, and the practical difficulties of monitoring the Bulletin on your own.
What Is the Official Trademark Bulletin?
The Official Trademark Bulletin is the publication of TÜRKPATENT (the Turkish Patent and Trademark Office) in which trademark applications and procedures relating to the trademark register are published under the Industrial Property Law No. 6769 (SMK). Article 2(1)(ç) SMK defines the "Bulletin" as the relevant publication in which the matters specified in the Law are published, regardless of the type of publication medium; in other words, publishing the Bulletin electronically does not change its legal nature.
The reason the Bulletin exists is the two-track structure of trademark examination. The Office examines the absolute grounds for refusal in Article 5 SMK of its own motion, whereas the relative grounds in Article 6 SMK, such as likelihood of confusion with earlier marks, well-known marks and bad faith, are assessed only upon opposition. The Bulletin is the only official channel that ensures the people who could oppose an application learn about it.
Bulletins are published as PDF files on the bulletins page of the Office's website. Each issue has a number and a publication date; the issue dated September 14, 2026, for example, bears the title "2026/500 Resmi Marka Bülteni". According to the Office's bulletins page, issues were published at intervals of roughly two weeks between July and September 2026. Because the Office sets the publication schedule, always use the publication date of the issue itself when calculating deadlines.
The same page also lists separately numbered issues of the "Resmi Marka Gazetesi" (Official Trademark Gazette) next to the Official Trademark Bulletin issues. The table of contents of Gazette issue 502, dated July 31, 2026, covers trademark registrations, international marks under the Madrid Protocol whose registration in Turkey has been decided, announcements concerning transactions on registered marks (such as assignment and merger entries), renewed marks, and corrections. In short, in the issues we reviewed, application announcements appear in the Bulletin, while announcements on registration and post-registration transactions appear in the Gazette; legally, both fall within the definition of "Bulletin" in SMK.
What Is Published in the Bulletin?
In addition to applications, the Bulletin announces the important transactions entered in the register over the life of a mark. The main events that SMK requires to be published in the Bulletin are the following:
| Type of announcement | Legal basis | What it means for you |
|---|---|---|
| Applications that have passed the examination on absolute grounds | Article 16(2) SMK | The two-month opposition period begins |
| Refusals decided after publication | Article 16(3) SMK | You can see that a published application was later refused |
| Registered marks | Article 22(1) SMK | The trademark rights begin to take effect against third parties |
| Renewals | Article 23(5) SMK | The new 10-year term is announced to the public |
| Legal transactions such as assignments, licenses and pledges | Article 148(5) SMK | A transaction recorded in the register can be relied on against third parties acting in good faith |
| Surrenders | Article 28(3) SMK | The trademark right ends for the surrendered scope |
| Deletion after final invalidation or revocation | Article 27(7) SMK | The mark is removed from the register |
| Notices served by publication | Article 160(7) SMK | Service is deemed made seven days after publication |
This table shows that treating the Bulletin merely as a "list of new applications" is incomplete. Whether a mark has been assigned, whether a license has been granted, or whether it has been invalidated can also first be traced through Bulletin entries. We explain how these records appear on search screens in our article on trademark status meanings.
These announcements also matter to trademark owners. For example, under Article 148(5) SMK, rights arising from an assignment cannot be relied on against third parties acting in good faith until the assignment is recorded in the register and published. You can also confirm from its announcement that the recordal of a mark you have acquired or licensed has actually been made.
Which Deadlines Does the Bulletin Trigger?
The publication date in the Bulletin is the starting point of several of the most important deadlines in trademark law. When reading an entry, the first thing to note is the publication date of the issue.
The Two-Month Opposition Period
Under Article 18 SMK, oppositions based on Article 5 or Article 6 SMK against an application published in the Bulletin must be filed in writing, with reasons, within two months of publication, and the opposition fee must also be paid within the same period. Under TÜRKPATENT's 2026 schedule of trademark fees (item 02.01.17), this fee is TRY 1,150; current amounts should always be checked against the TÜRKPATENT fee schedule, which is updated every year, and the official fees do not include an attorney's service fee. We explain how the period is calculated in our article on the trademark opposition deadline, and how an opposition is prepared in our guide to filing a trademark opposition.
Third-Party Observations
Under Article 17 SMK, after an application is published, anyone may submit written, reasoned observations until registration arguing that the application cannot be registered on absolute grounds (except Article 5(1)(ç)). The person submitting observations does not become a party to the proceedings, but it is the Bulletin that opens this route as well.
Notice by Publication and the Seven-Day Rule
Under Article 160(7) SMK, notices to be served by publication under the Law are served through the relevant Bulletin and are deemed to have been served seven days after the Bulletin's publication date. For an applicant who cannot be reached at their address, deadlines may start running from that date; someone who does not follow the Bulletin can miss a deadline without ever seeing the notice served on them.
The Right to Compensation for Acts After Publication
Under Article 7(4) SMK, trademark rights take effect against third parties from the date the registration is published. However, the applicant may bring an action for compensation for acts that occur after the application is published in the Bulletin and that could be prohibited once the mark is registered; the court cannot rule before the registration is published. We explain step by step what happens in the process after publication in our article on what happens after filing a trademark application.
How Should You Check Your Own Application's Bulletin Entry?
On the day your application is published, open the entry and do two things: confirm that the published information is correct, and put the two-month opposition period in your calendar. The Bulletin entry is the official proof of the scope with which your application was announced to the public.
First compare the representation of the mark on the (540) line and the list of goods and services on the (510) line with your own application. If a refusal was issued for some goods and services during examination, the published list may be narrower; we explain the consequences in our article on the partial refusal of a trademark application. If you spot an error caused by publication, follow the corrections the Office announces in the "Corrections" section of later issues.
If an opposition is filed against your application during the opposition period, the Office will ask for your observations under Article 19(1) SMK, and this notification usually arrives by electronic service; under Article 160(6) SMK, electronic service is in any event deemed made at the end of the tenth day after the document is placed in the mailbox. During this period, check your EPATS and e-Devlet notifications regularly; if an opposition is filed, the route to follow is set out in our guide on what to do when a trademark opposition is filed against your application. It also makes sense during this period to record, with dates and evidence, any uses that imitate your mark, because Article 7(4) SMK keeps the route to compensation open for acts after publication.
How Is a Bulletin Issue Organized?
An issue consists of set sections, and each section opens with its own sequential list of numbers. The table of contents of issue 500, dated September 2026, contains the following headings:
- Announcement: An introductory text recalling the legal consequences of publication and the opposition period.
- International codes and explanations: The Turkish equivalents of the INID codes used in the entries.
- Section announcing national applications: Applications filed directly with TÜRKPATENT.
- Annotations: Publication corrections and records such as seizures and restrictions on applications.
- Madrid section: Applications designating Turkey under the Madrid Protocol, with the related annotations.
- Published after re-examination: National and Madrid applications whose publication was decided at the stage of an appeal against an Office decision.
- Corrections and court decisions: Corrections of errors in earlier issues and applications published by court decision.
The Madrid section is especially easy to overlook: there, the international registration number is listed next to the file number assigned in Turkey. A foreign company's designation of Turkey is subject to the same opposition period as national applications.
How Do You Read a Bulletin Entry? INID Codes
Bulletin entries are labeled with standard international INID codes. INID stands for "Internationally agreed Numbers for the Identification of (bibliographic) Data", and for trademarks these codes are defined in Standard ST.60 of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). Thanks to the codes, you can understand what each line of an entry means, whatever language it is published in.
| Code | Meaning in WIPO ST.60 | What you see in the Turkish Bulletin |
|---|---|---|
| (210) | Serial number of the application | Application number in the format "2026/012345" |
| (220) | Date of filing of the application | The day the application was filed |
| (511) | Nice Classification and/or the list of goods and services classified according to it | The class numbers in the application |
| (510) | List of goods and/or services, if not classified | The text of the list of goods and services |
| (531) | Figurative elements according to the Vienna Classification | Figurative codes for applications with a logo |
| (540) | Representation of the mark | The mark itself: a word or an image |
| (731) | Name and address of the applicant | A name or company name preceded by a number, a country code and an address |
| (740) | Name and address of the representative | In issue 500, attorney details shown with the label "Vekil:" (Attorney) instead of the code |
The "International Codes and Explanations" page at the start of each issue gives the Turkish equivalents of the codes used in that issue; code (151), used for the date of registration, also appears there. Because the way codes are presented may vary slightly from issue to issue, always start reading from that page.
ST.60 uses separate codes for the applicant and the holder of the registration: (731) refers to the applicant and (732) to the holder of the registered mark. In application announcements, the code you will see is (731); after registration, the same person is referred to as the owner of the mark.
Reading an Entry Step by Step
Following this order when reading a single entry ensures you do not miss an important detail:
- Start with (540): Look at the mark itself; is it a word, a logo, or both?
- Compare (511) and (510): Even if the class numbers match, do the goods and services in the list overlap with yours?
- Note (731) and the attorney line: Is the applicant a competitor, and who is the attorney?
- Record (210) and (220): With the number you can check the file's current status, and with the date you can compare priority.
- Write down the issue's publication date: Calculate the last day of the opposition period from this date.
We explain how to check a file's current status using the number you see in the Bulletin in our guide to trademark application number search. If you want to look at the whole register for the same name, our free Turkish trademark search tool lists registered and pending records with their status and classes.
The Difficulties of Scanning the Bulletin Yourself
The Bulletin is open to everyone, but scanning it systematically is impractical for most businesses. The difficulties fall under four headings:
- Volume: Issue 500, dated September 14, 2026, runs to more than 2,950 pages, contains over 6,600 application entries, and its PDF file exceeds 400 MB.
- Variations: A word search in the PDF only finds the exact spelling; it does not catch different spellings that sound the same, versions with added words, or translations.
- Figurative marks: An image resembling your logo cannot be found by a text search; the Vienna codes and the images have to be examined one by one.
- Continuity: Skipping a single issue means missing the opposition period for every application in that issue.
If you still intend to do your own scanning, the sequential list of numbers at the start of each section is not enough on its own; it gives only application numbers, not trademark names. The practical way is to look first at the (511) line of the entries to pick out the relevant classes, then compare the (540) lines of those entries with your mark and its variations. For logos, you need to match the Vienna codes on the (531) line with the codes of your own logo.
Because of these difficulties, Bulletin monitoring is usually carried out through a trademark watch service: the marks in your portfolio are searched in every issue, including the national and Madrid sections, and similar entries are reported together with the last day for opposition. We discuss separately why monitoring is a necessity rather than a choice in our article on trademark watch and bulletin monitoring.
Conclusion
Key takeaways:
- The Official Trademark Bulletin is the official publication in which applications and register entries such as registrations, renewals, assignments and invalidations are announced.
- The date an application is published in the Bulletin starts the two-month opposition period; the Office does not notify anyone separately.
- Notices served by publication are served through the Bulletin and are deemed made seven days after publication.
- Entries are read using INID codes: (210) number, (220) date, (511) classes, (540) the mark, (731) applicant.
- Each issue can run to thousands of pages; for regular scanning that covers variations, a watch service is the practical solution.
Would You Like to Put Your Mark Under Bulletin Watch?
Share your list of marks and your fields of activity through our contact page; together we will decide which marks should be watched, with which variations and classes, and we will report the similar entries in each new issue to you together with the last day for opposition.
