IP Enforcement in Turkey: Counterfeits, Customs Seizure and Injunctions

If counterfeits of your product are being sold in Türkiye (Turkey), you have four practical routes: a customs watch that stops fakes at the border, a preliminary injunction (ihtiyati tedbir) that halts sales, a civil action for damages and destruction, and a criminal complaint against the seller. Which route works depends almost entirely on whether your trademark is registered in Türkiye. The system is registration-based: a registered mark unlocks the border tool, the fast injunction and the criminal complaint. An unregistered foreign brand is not defenceless — unfair competition and well-known-mark arguments remain — but those paths are slower, more evidence-heavy and less certain. This guide explains what each route achieves and demands. Most of it can be handled by a Turkish lawyer under a power of attorney.

Why does registration in Türkiye decide almost everything?

Most brand owners find out the same way: a distributor sends a photograph, or your logo turns up on a marketplace listing at a third of your price. The first question a Turkish lawyer will ask is not about the fake — it is about your own registration.

Türkiye protects industrial property under the Industrial Property Law No. 6769, built on registration with the Turkish Patent and Trademark Office. A mark registered in Germany or the United States gives you nothing automatic inside Türkiye.

Two things soften this. Türkiye is party to the Paris Convention, whose Article 6bis protects well-known marks without local registration; in Turkish practice it is used mainly to block or cancel someone else's Turkish registration of your mark, and it requires proof that the mark is well known in Türkiye — a case in itself. It is not a shortcut to the border tool or the criminal complaint. Separately, copying a get-up, packaging or trade name can be attacked as unfair competition under the Turkish Commercial Code (TTK 6102), which does not depend on a register.

If you sell into Turkey and have not filed there, filing is usually the most cost-effective defensive step available — see our guide to trademark rights and our intellectual property practice.

How does a customs watch stop counterfeit goods at the border?

The border is where enforcement against counterfeit goods costs least. Turkey customs can hold a consignment while the goods are still in one place, rather than after they reach a hundred shops.

The legal basis is Article 57 of the Customs Law No. 4458, with the detail in the Customs Regulation. You file an application for action online, covering trademarks, designs, patents, copyright and geographical indications, supported by proof of your rights, images that distinguish genuine from fake, and contact details for someone reachable in Türkiye. It is granted for a period not exceeding one year and is renewable — a lapsed watch is the most common reason a shipment sails through.

Once a suspect consignment appears, customs suspends release and notifies you. The clock is short:

• Generally ten working days to inspect, take samples and produce either a court injunction or a criminal seizure order; an extension of up to a further ten working days may be requested.
• Three working days for perishable goods, with no extension available.
• Where no application is yet on file, customs may detain goods of its own motion on clear evidence of infringement — but only for a short window (three working days) in which you must file a valid application.

Where the declarant or holder of the goods consents — or does not object within the period given, which is treated as consent — a simplified destruction procedure can dispose of them under customs supervision without a full court process. More on the border framework: our guide to customs duty regulations in Türkiye and our customs and international trade service.

Which enforcement route should you choose?

Most real cases use two or three routes together: a customs watch in the background, an injunction to stop the bleeding, and a civil claim behind it.

Stopping one container is not the same as stopping the workshop behind it.

How fast can a preliminary injunction stop sales?

Turkish civil courts can order interim relief under the Code of Civil Procedure No. 6100 (HMKHMKCode of Civil Procedure No. 6100The rulebook for how a civil case actually runs in Türkiye — which court, which steps, which deadlines, and what evidence counts.Glossary →), and Law No. 6769 expressly contemplates interim measures in industrial property disputes. An injunction can order the infringer to stop selling, advertising or distributing, and can place infringing stock under custody.

Applications go to the specialised civil IP courts, or designated civil courts where none exist, and can be made before the main action is filed — useful in a border detention.

Expect the court to require security (teminat) before the measure takes effect — the general rule for any applicant under the Code of Civil Procedure. A foreign claimant may separately be asked to provide security for the costs of the action. Interim relief is discretionary and turns on the evidence on paper.

How do you gather evidence that will actually hold up?

Screenshots on a phone are a start, not a case. Turkish courts, and prosecutors in particular, respond to evidence fixed in a form that cannot later be questioned.

• Determination of evidence (delil tespiti). A court-supervised procedure under the Code of Civil Procedure that records the state of goods, premises or a website before anything is cleaned up.
• Notarised test purchases. A sealed sample plus an invoice naming the seller is worth more than any number of photographs.
• Chain of supply. Invoices, shipping documents and the importer's name from a customs detention often lead further up the chain than the shop that sold the item.
• Comparison samples. Keep genuine units available, with the security features an expert can check.

If the operation looks organised — forged invoices, shell importers, fake certificates — it may also engage the fraud provisions discussed in our guide to fraud crime in Turkish law.

What does a civil action get you that an injunction does not?

An injunction stops the bleeding. The civil action decides who pays and what happens to the goods.

Under Law No. 6769 a right holder can ask the court for a determination of infringement, an order to cease and prevent the infringing acts, removal of infringing goods from the market, seizure and destruction of the goods and the tools used to produce them, compensation for material and moral damage, and publication of the judgment at the infringer's expense.

Publication is underrated. In a market where distributors and retailers talk, a published judgment can do more to clear your channel than a damages figure.

On damages, the Law allows lost earnings to be calculated on more than one basis — what you would have earned, what the infringer earned, or what a licence would have cost — and the choice is yours on the evidence. That election is generally expected at the outset rather than after the infringer's books have been examined, so think it through before filing.

Where the counterfeiter is your former distributor, the contract usually gives you extra leverage — see our commercial contract law service and our note on penalty clauses in Turkish contracts.

When is the criminal route the right tool?

If you want to stop trademark infringement in Turkey at street level, the criminal route often reaches further than a civil one. Under Article 30 of Law No. 6769, producing goods or providing services by infringing a registered trademark through imitation — that is, in a way likely to cause confusion — and offering for sale, selling, importing, exporting, buying, holding, transporting or stocking such goods for commercial purposes, is punishable by imprisonment and a judicial fine.

Two features matter here.

• Registered trademarks only. An unregistered mark cannot support this complaint, however obvious the copying.
• Complaint-based. Prosecutors do not open these files on their own. You must complain — and under the general rule of the Turkish Criminal Code the complaint must be made within six months of learning of both the act and the identity of the infringer.

Where the infringement is continuing, when that period starts can be analysed differently, so take advice before assuming the window has closed — but treat six months as the working deadline.

The attraction here is the search and seizure that can follow: police attend the warehouse or shop and remove the stock. The trade-off: once the file is with the prosecutor, you lose control of pace.

How do you clear counterfeits off marketplaces and domains?

Most counterfeit sales a foreign brand notices in Türkiye happen online, and the fastest fix is often not a court.

The large Turkish and international marketplaces operate brand-protection programmes. A right holder registered with a programme can usually have listings removed quickly and repeat sellers deactivated. These programmes generally require a Turkish (or at least a pending) registration.

Three further options are worth knowing:

1. Notice to the platform and hosting provider. Turkish internet legislation provides notice-and-removal mechanisms against unlawful content, and a documented notice creates a record if the platform does nothing.
2. Domain names. Disputes over ".tr" domains go through the dispute resolution mechanism operated under the Turkish registry system; generic domains such as ".com" fall under the UDRP administered by WIPO.
3. Injunction against access. Where a site exists to sell fakes, interim relief can be sought in support of the substantive claim.

Personal data collected during test purchases brings KVKK 6698 obligations into play, so keep the investigation file tidy.

What does this look like in practice for a foreign brand owner?

You do not need to be in Türkiye for any of it. A Turkish lawyer acting under a power of attorney can file the customs application, attend a detention, apply for an injunction, lodge a criminal complaint and run the civil case. A workable sequence:

1. Confirm the status of your Turkish registrations and file for anything missing.
2. Register the customs watch and diarise its renewal.
3. Fix the evidence before anyone is warned.
4. Decide the target — importer, warehouse or shop — and pick the route that reaches it.
5. Move on the injunction, then file the main action inside the two-week window.
6. Keep marketplace takedowns running throughout.

Collecting on a judgment is a separate exercise under the Enforcement and Bankruptcy Law No. 2004, and against a shell importer it is often the hardest part. Our enforcement and debt-collection team handles that stage, and our note on precautionary attachment explains how assets can be frozen early.

US-based brand owners can start at our US Desk. Anyone else can set out the situation through our intake page or contact us, and we will tell you which route fits and what it involves, in writing.

Frequently asked questions