Your Trademark Application Was Refused: Options and Deadlines

A refusal from TÜRKPATENT is not a final answer. You may appeal to the Re-examination and Evaluation Board within two months of notification, and if the Board also rules against you, you may file a cancellation action before the Ankara Civil IP Court within two months of that decision. Both deadlines are strict: once missed, the file is closed for good.

First, read which ground the refusal rests on

• Article 5 — absolute grounds, applied by the Office of its own motion: lack of distinctiveness, descriptiveness, or an earlier identical / indistinguishably similar mark.
• Article 6 — relative grounds, applied only where a third party opposes: likelihood of confusion, prior use, reputation, trade name or copyright conflicts.
• Partial refusal — often only some classes are refused and the rest of the application proceeds.

Answering an absolute-grounds refusal

If the mark was found non-distinctive or descriptive, the strongest route is evidence of acquired distinctiveness: sales figures, advertising spend, press coverage, market share and consumer surveys showing that the sign has come to identify your business. Assertions alone do not carry an appeal — documents do.

Where the refusal is based on an earlier identical or indistinguishably similar mark, Turkish law offers a fast commercial route: if the earlier right holder provides a notarised letter of consent to the registration, the application can no longer be refused on that ground. Negotiating that consent — usually alongside a limitation of the goods list or a co-existence agreement — often resolves in weeks what an appeal would take months to achieve.

Preparing the Board appeal

The appeal must address each finding in the decision with specific counter-arguments and supporting evidence. You may supplement the appeal with further submissions inside the two-month window, but no new grounds can be raised after it closes.

If the Board refuses as well

The Board’s decision is the Office’s final word. It can be challenged before the Ankara Civil Court for Intellectual and Industrial Property Rights within two months of notification, where the file is reviewed with court-appointed experts and can be supported with evidence not previously filed. These proceedings usually run beyond a year, so the decision to litigate should be weighed against the commercial value of the mark and the cost of adopting an alternative.

If a refusal has landed, the clock is already running — contact us or see our opposition and appeal service.

This article is general information and not legal advice. Deadlines run from the notification date on your own file, so seek advice as soon as a decision reaches you.