Turkey: Law No. 6769 of December 22, 2016, on Industrial Property

January 10, 2017

Turkey: The Law No. 6769 of December 22, 2016, on Industrial Property entered into force on January 10, 2017, on the same date as its publication in the Official Gazette. It covers all industrial property matters and repeals Decree-Laws No. 551, 554, 555 and 556, relating to patents, industrial designs, geographical indications and trademarks.

The Law introduces significant changes to the industrial property system in Turkey including: (i) the renaming of the "Turkish Patent Institute" to the "Turkish Patent and Trademark Office" (TURKPATENT); (ii) the abolition of the so-called seven-year non-examined patents and the introduction of the post-grant opposition system for national patent filings; (iii) the shortening of the opposition period for designs from 6 to 3 months, and for trademarks from 3 to 2 months; (iv) the extension of the definition of a trademark and the possibility of registering sound and color trademarks; and (v) the reinforcement of trademark protection and the inclusion of new criminal provisions on trademark infringements.