Additional Fee Communiqué
The Communiqué Amending the Communiqué on the Fee Schedule to be Applied by the Turkish Patent and Trademark Office in 2025 (“Additional Fee Communiqué”) was published in the Official Gazette dated 15 March 2025 and numbered 32842, and entered into force. Additional Fee Communiqué introduces several amendments to the official trademark fees payable to the Turkish Patent and Trademark Office (“TPTO”).
Changes Introduced by the Additional Fee Communiqué
1. An additional fee will be charged for each class after the first two classes selected within the scope of class 35/05 (sales services for specific goods) out of the 34 classes of goods:
Previous situation: Within the scope of class 35/05, it also had to be determined which goods would be included in the content of the sales services of specific goods, but there was no difference between the fee to be paid for selecting all 34 classes of goods and selecting a single class of goods.
Current situation: If more than two goods classes are selected for sales services under class 35/05, an additional class fee of TRY 360 will be charged for the 3rd and each subsequent class for 2025.
2. Trademark renewal fee will be determined according to the number of classes:
The protection period of a registered trademark is 10 years from the application date. It must be renewed in order to maintain the trademark protection.
Previous situation: Regardless of whether the relevant trademark was registered in all 45 classes or in a single class, the fee to be paid for the renewal requests was fixed. In this way, partial renewal of trademarks was rarely a preferred situation.
Current situation: While the fee for the timely renewal of trademarks up to 2 classes remains the same (TRY 7,210 for 2025), an additional renewal fee of TRY 600 will be paid for each of the 3rd and subsequent classes for 2025. In expired trademarks, while the fee remains the same for trademarks up to 2 classes (TRY 12,620 for 2025), an additional renewal fee of TRY 1,050 will be paid for each of the 3rd and subsequent classes for 2025.
The new renewal fee system may increase the importance of partial trademark renewals. In this way, at the end of the 10-year period, those who do not want to pay high renewal fees would avoid renewing their trademarks in classes they do not use.
3. Trademark cancellation request deposit amount will be added to the trademark cancellation fee for the trademark cancellation requests:
Previous situation: In trademark cancellation requests, it was sufficient to pay the trademark cancellation fee.
Current situation: In addition to the trademark cancellation fee (TRY 28,150 for 2025), the trademark cancellation request deposit amount, which is TRY 23,458.33 for 2025, will also have to be paid. As a result, in order to apply for cancellation, a fee of TRY 51,608.33 for each trademark must be paid to the TPTO.
If the cancellation request is completely rejected, the fee held in the escrow account will be paid to the trademark owner registered in the registry, upon request; if the cancellation request is fully accepted, the fee held in the escrow account will be paid to the applicant of the cancellation request, upon request. In the TPTO decisions to partially accept the cancellation request, no payment will be made to the parties, and the money taken into the escrow account will be recorded as income for the TPTO. In order to make a request, the TPTO must have made a final decision.
Conclusion
The TPTO has made changes to the official fees for trademark applications, renewals and cancellation requests with the Additional Fee Communiqué. It is observed that with the changes made, it is aimed to simplify trademark applications in class 35/05, to encourage partial trademark renewal requests only in the classes used by determining trademark renewal fees according to the number of classes, and to secure the possible damages of trademark owners whose trademarks are requested to be canceled, with the deposit system in cancellation requests. While the results of the changes made will be seen more clearly in the future, it is certain that the changes, that will make trademark, renewal, and cancellation applications more difficult, will create various discussions.