In Article 192/1 (a) of the Industrial Property Law ("IPL") published in the Official Gazette dated 10 January 2017 and numbered 29944, the enforcement of Article 26 of the Law titled "Cancellation Cases and Cancellation Request" was postponed until seven years later, and with the Provisional Article 4 of the IPL, it was stipulated that the authority to decide on the cancellation of trademarks would be directly exercised by the Intellectual and Industrial Rights Civil Courts until 10 January 2024.
As of January 10, 2024, with the enforcement of Article 26 of the IPL, if the conditions specified in the first paragraph of the same article exist, requests for the cancellation of a trademark must be submitted to the Turkish Patent and Trademark Office ("TPTO"). With this implementation, in compliance with the EU Trademark Directive [9] numbered 2015/2436 and the EU Trademark Regulation [10] numbered 2015/2424, the administrative cancellation process for trademarks commenced.
We would like to emphasize that trademark cancellation cases pending as of the effective date of the article on January 10, 2024, will continue to be heard and will be concluded by the Intellectual and Industrial Property Rights Courts.
It is not possible to file a direct lawsuit against the acceptance or rejection decisions made by the TPTO regarding the trademark cancellation request. Pursuant to Article 20 of the IPL, persons prejudiced by the decisions of the TPTO may file an appeal to the TPTO within two months from the date of notification of the decision, provided that it is in writing and justified. Applications that do not contain formal deficiencies will be examined and decided by the Re-examination and Evaluation Board ("RERB") within the Re-examination and Evaluation Department, which is responsible for examining and finalizing the objections to the decisions made by the TPTO in accordance with the "Regulation on the Boards of the Re-examination and Evaluation Department of the Turkish Patent and Trademark Office".
Pursuant to Article 156 of the IPL, the related individuals may file an action for annulment of the decision before the Ankara Intellectual and Industrial Rights Law Court against the decisions of the RERB, within 2 months from the date of notification of the relevant RERB decision to such related individual.
Link to access the Official Gazette:
https://www.resmigazete.gov.tr/
eskiler/2017/01/20170110-9.htm
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