Registering a Trademark in Turkey: The 2026 Comprehensive Guide for Foreign Investors
Expanding your business to Turkey is an exciting milestone. But before you print your business cards or launch your Turkish website, there is one crucial step you cannot afford to skip: Trademark Registration. Intellectual Property (IP) rights are territorial. Your registered trademark in Germany, the UK, or the USA does not give you protection in Turkey. Without a local registration, you are legally invisible, and worse, you are vulnerable. Step 1: The "Life-Saving" Similarity Search The Turkish Patent and Trademark Office (TÜRKPATENT) examines applications not just for identical matches, but for "similarity." If your brand is "SolarMax" and there is already a "SolarMix" registered in the same sector, your application will likely be rejected. Filing an application without a preliminary search is the most common and costly mistake foreign investors make. A comprehensive search conducted by professional trademark attorneys in Turkey can save...