In Turkey, the ownership of trademarks, regardless of whether they are registered or pending following application, can be transferred to third parties through a trademark assignment agreement.

Agreement to be notarized and recorded

A trademark assignment must be concluded in writing and approved by a notary public. As per Article 148(4) of the Industrial Property Code numbered 6769, the approval from a notary is a requirement for validity.

The assignment agreement must be signed by either the authorized signatories of the parties or their attorneys assigned through a power of attorney before the notary public.

If the assignment agreement is to be signed outside of Turkey, the respective agreement must be notarized and apostilled in the respective country, and the notarized and apostilled copy must be translated into Turkish by a sworn translator.

Although the notary approval has a constitutive effect between the parties to the agreement, the assignment of the trademark must also be recorded with the Turkish Patent and Trademark Office (“TPTO”) for the assignment to become enforceable towards third parties.

For the assignment to be recorded with the TPTO:

• A petition requesting the recordation of the assignment and a copy of the notarized assignment agreement must be submitted to the TPTO.

The TPTO does not require the trademark attorney to have a power of attorney for this recordation application.

Scope of the trademark assignment agreement

In addition to a detailed agreement, a short-form agreement may also serve the purpose of recording the assignment provided that the following information is included:

• Identities of the assignor and the assignee,

• Application/registration number of the trademark to be assigned,

• If a partial assignment, the list of goods/services of the trademark subject to transfer.

It should be noted that the assignment fee or consideration amount is not required to be included in the agreement for the purposes of the TPTO recordation.

Assignment of ownership through a merger of companies or a court decision

The ownership of a trademark may also be changed as a result of a merger of two companies or pursuant to a Turkish court decision ruling such a change. In such cases, the respective change in ownership should also be recorded with the TPTO by submitting a petition requesting the change and the official document evidencing such change (instead of an assignment agreement).