NEWSLETTER-2019-metin

258 NEWSLETTER 2019 Genuine Use of the Trademarks* Att. Yesim Tokgoz In accordance with the statistics published by the Turkish Patent and Trademark Institution ( “ TurkPatent ” ), 105,996 trademarks were registered with the TurkPatent in 2018 in total; whereas, 81,911 of the domestic trademarks have entered into the protection sphere of the Industrial Property Law ( “ IP Law ” ) 1 . However, registration, alone, is insufficient to protect the rights of the trademark proprietors. The trademarks must be used in the goods or service classes in which they are registered, and this usage must be proven, in order to pre- vent intervention by a third party. In this manner, the effective use of the trademarks in the market is ensured, and new entrepreneurs are prevented from entering into an artificial market 2 . This month’s article sheds light on the management of trademarks and the legal processes that unused trademarks may encounter. Genuine Use of Trademark The protection period of trademarks under the IP Law is ten years. The proprietor of the trademark may maintain its trademark with unlimited periods of time by renewing its trademark with ten- year periods; however, the registration of the trademark by itself, and/ or the renewal every ten years, are not sufficient to protect the trade- mark against interventions by third parties 3 . In order for the registry to protect the trademark, actively, trademarks i) must be put to genuine use, ii) within five years following the registration, iii) in connection with the good or service classes in respect of which they are registered, iv) by the proprietors , v) in Turkey, or vi) their usage must not be sus- * Article of March 2019 1 https://www.turkpatent.gov.tr/TURKPATENT/statistics/ (Access date: 06.04.2019). 2 TurkPatent, Guide for Genuine Use Counterclaim. 3 e.g.: 11th CC of Court of Cassation, E. 2012/13423, K. 2013/12221, 12.06.2013.