Article 26 of Industrial Property Law No. 6769 brought an important change planned to take effect on 10 January 2024: the Turkish Patent and Trademark Office may decide on trademark cancellation requests without the need to pursue a court action.
One of the cancellation grounds is non-use of a registered trademark for the goods or services covered by the registration. Article 9 states that a trademark may be cancelled if it has not been genuinely used in Turkey without justified reason within five years from registration, or if such use has been interrupted for five consecutive years.
As a result, a significant number of cancellation requests may be filed against trademarks that have completed the five-year period but are not actively used.