As mentioned in our previous notice dated 30 March 2020, the Turkish Parliament passed a law suspending all legal terms in court proceedings and all compulsory official filings starting from 13 March 2020 until 30 April 2020 (both dates included) due to the COVID-19 outbreak. Further, the Turkish Patent and Trademark Office announced that this suspension is also valid for the terms specified in the Industrial Property Law No. 6769.
Pursuant to a Presidential decree published on 30 April 2020, the suspension period has been extended to 15 June 2020 (this date included) – to be re-evaluated in case the threat of spread of pandemic disappears earlier.
In the meantime, the Turkish Patent and Trademark Office has made an announcement on 5 May 2020 about the suspended terms and new deadlines in accordance with the current development. Accordingly, the deadlines have further been extended and the extended deadlines are calculated on a case-by-case basis depending on the starting and expiration dates of the usual time periods of each case.
We continue with our operations in the normal course and adhere to the usual deadlines where possible in the absence of instructions to the contrary from our clients.