Turkish Court of Appeals Allows Slogans to be Registered as Trademarks
Işık Özdoğan, October 2003 / INTA Bulletin

In a landmark judgment, the Turkish Court of Appeals recently ruled that slogans can be registered as trademarks if they comply with certain requirements.

The Turkish Trademark Law, enacted in 1995, does not explicitly prohibit the registration of slogans. As long as an application meets the basic requirements under law, the Turkish Patent Institute(TPI) can allow the registration of slogans. However, since its inception the TPI has not been granting registrations for slogans since it reasoned that slogans do not designate the trademark proprietor and lack distinctiveness.

On March 17, 2003, the Court of Appeals resolved the long-lasting dispute on slogan registration. In this case, the plaintiff-appellant had applied for the registration of the slogan “GET CONNECTED TO THE FLAVOR OF THE WORLD” and the TPI on the above mentioned grounds had refused the application. The applicant brought its case to the court and appealed that refusal.

The local court at first instance decided that according to evidence collected, the subject of the slogan was known and had been registered as a trademark in a number of countries, and it was original and of distinctive character, therefore the Institute’s decision in rejecting the application should be annulled. The court of Appeal affirmed the local court’s Grant in favor of the plaintiff.

After the decision of the Court of Appeals, slogan owners have a chance to register their slogans if they meet the requirements of distinctiveness. As long as the applicant provides the TPI with proof of a slogan’s descriptive features, it may qualify for trademark registration.

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