An unused trademark is not deleted automatically — it remains in the register. But if it is not put to genuine use for five years from the registration date, the trademark is left defenceless on four fronts: any interested party can request its revocation from TÜRKPATENT, Turkey's trademark office; your oppositions against similar applications hit the wall of proof of use; in an infringement action against an imitator you face the non-use defence; and your trademark ceases to serve as a basis in invalidation actions.
In brief:
- Non-use on its own does not bring the trademark down; the consequence arises only when someone takes action — but once five years have passed, that can happen at any moment.
- Since 2024, revocation has been requested not in court but directly before TÜRKPATENT: faster for competitors, a closer risk for you.
- Partial revocation is real: unused classes fall one by one.
- An unused trademark erodes not only legally but economically as well: in assignment and licence negotiations it is priced as a "file at risk of revocation".
- Rescue is possible: resuming genuine use before a revocation request is filed will, as a rule, save the trademark — but token preparations in the last three months do not count.
We explained the rule itself — when the period starts, the criteria for "genuine use", the means of proof, proper reasons — in detail in the article Trademark Use Requirement: The Five-Year Rule. This article focuses on the consequences of breaching the rule.
Two Different Deaths: Do Not Confuse Non-Renewal With Non-Use
The two risks that trademark proprietors most often confuse work in completely different ways:
| Issue | Non-renewal | Non-use |
|---|---|---|
| When does the risk arise? | Once every 10 years, in the renewal window | 5 years after registration, if non-use continues |
| How does the consequence arise? | Automatically — the right lapses when the period expires | On request — an interested party must seek revocation |
| Is partial loss possible? | Yes (deliberately, through partial renewal) | Yes (involuntarily, through partial revocation) |
| Prevention | A calendar and timely renewal | Genuine use + an evidence archive |
The table also corrects a misconception: renewing a trademark regularly does not eliminate the risk of non-use. A trademark on which fees have been paid for ten years but which has never been used is a renewed but revocable trademark — and that is also the most expensive scenario.
The Four Fronts That Open Once Five Years Have Passed
1. A Revocation Request: The Risk of Being Removed From the Register
Any interested party — typically a competitor who wants the same sign — can request the Office to revoke the trademark. The burden of proof is on you: if you cannot document use, the trademark is revoked in respect of the unused goods and services. As a rule, a revocation decision takes effect from the date of the request; where the conditions are met, it can start from an earlier date. Partial revocation is the insidious side of this front: not the whole trademark but its unused classes fall away — a broadly drafted registration quietly shrinks over the years.
2. Your Oppositions Lose Their Teeth
When you oppose a similar application, the applicant can ask you for proof of use (if your trademark is more than five years old). If you cannot prove it, your opposition is rejected, however similar the trademarks may be. The outcome is painful: your trademark stays in the register, but similar marks are registered one after another and your distinctiveness in the market erodes.
3. Your Case Against Imitators Weakens
In an infringement action you bring against someone using your trademark without permission, the other side can resort to the non-use defence. Trying to stop an imitator with a trademark that has not been used for five years is like reaching for a sword in an empty scabbard: your action and claims for damages weaken in the face of this defence. We described the general path in infringement scenarios in the article Someone Is Using My Trademark — the fuel for every tool along that path is evidence of use.
4. It Cannot Serve as a Basis in an Invalidation Action
When you want to have a similar trademark registered later invalidated, you face the same threshold: the defendant can ask you to prove use of the trademark you are relying on. An unused trademark cannot clear its neighbours out of the register. We covered the difference between revocation and invalidation in a separate article.
The Economic Consequence: A Silent Loss of Value
The legal fronts open with a request or a lawsuit; the economic loss, however, works silently. In an assignment negotiation, the buyer's attorney examines the usage history along with the register record: a five-year gap earns a "file at risk of revocation" label and is a direct reason for cutting the price. In a licence negotiation, the same gap brings the licensee's question to the table: "What happens to my investment if I lose this trademark tomorrow?" If the trademark is carried on the balance sheet as an asset, the revocation risk hangs over that line item too.
When Are You Safe?
The use requirement does not demand that you use the trademark personally and in every class. The situations in which you are safe:
- Use with consent: Use by a licensee, a franchisee or a contract manufacturer is, by law, deemed to be your use — as long as it can be documented. A map of the ways to let others use your trademark is in a separate article.
- Flexibility of form: Using the trademark with different elements that do not alter its distinctive character also counts as use; the limits are set out in the five-year rule article.
- Proper reasons: Exceptional cases where non-use is due to serious obstacles beyond the proprietor's control — interpreted narrowly and assessed on the facts of the case.
If You Start Using It Again, Are You Saved?
As a rule, yes — provided you pay attention to timing. If genuine use is resumed after the five-year period has expired but before the revocation request, the revocation request will, as a rule, be rejected. The law also closes an escape hatch: use of a preparatory nature made within the three months before the request, solely in anticipation that a request would be filed, is disregarded. In other words, hearing about your competitor's move and making a few sales at the last minute does not save the trademark; what saves it is use that genuinely began before the request and is ongoing.
Three Real-World Scenarios
Scenario 1 — The silent shrinking of a broad registration. A company registers its trademark in eight classes but actually trades in two. Years later, when it opposes a similar application, the applicant asks for proof of use; proof can be provided in only two classes, and the opposition is rejected in respect of the remaining classes. Emboldened, the competitor goes a step further and requests partial revocation: six classes fall away. The "broad protection" in the register turned out to be only as broad as the use that could be proven.
Scenario 2 — Last-minute sales. The proprietor of a trademark whose production has been halted for more than five years hears that a competitor is preparing a revocation request and issues a few invoices within two months. When the request arrives, this use falls within the exception for preparatory use in the three months before the request and is disregarded; the trademark is revoked. What saves a trademark is not a sales receipt but commercial activity that genuinely began before the request and is ongoing.
Scenario 3 — The proprietor who does not use but lets others use. The proprietor of a trademark that has been withdrawn from production has licensed it to two contract manufacturers. When a revocation request arrives, the licensees' invoices, packaging visuals and the licence agreement recorded in the register go into the file; because use with consent counts as use by the proprietor, the request is rejected. Had the same proprietor not had an evidence delivery obligation written into the agreement, it would have had the right but not the proof.
If You Are Not Going to Use It: Four Deliberate Options
- Sell it. A trademark that is dormant for you is valuable to someone wanting to enter that market; assigning it before it is revoked is better than losing it with zero return.
- License it. A licence both generates income and keeps the trademark standing against the use requirement — how to structure one is covered in the licensor's checklist.
- Narrow it. When the renewal period comes, deliberately dropping the classes you do not use (partial renewal) is both cheaper and more controlled than losing them involuntarily through partial revocation.
- Let it go deliberately. If the trademark is not strategic, not renewing it is also a legitimate decision — as long as it is a decision and not forgetfulness.
Conclusion
The answer to the question "what happens if a trademark is not used" has two layers: on the surface, nothing — the register does not warn you, the Office does not remind you, the trademark stays put; in reality, however, on the day five years have passed your trademark turns into a file that is open to a revocation request, crippled by the burden of proof in oppositions and lawsuits, and devalued in negotiations. The worst thing you can do with a dormant trademark is nothing: use it, license it, sell it or let it go deliberately — and establish which of these situations you are in before your competitor does.
What State Is Your Trademark In?
Send us your trademark number via our contact page; together we will work out the age of your registration, how much of its scope is actually being used and your revocation risk — and, if necessary, start building your evidence file today. Our trademark watch service brings similar applications and requests targeting your trademark to your attention without delay.