Grounds For Refusal In Turkish Trademark Law and EU Law

Trademark, which consists one of the components of intangible assets of enterprises, both addresses the origin of the commodity or services and distinguishes one enterpriser?s commodity or services from the others. Therefore, trademark gains the most significant tool position in this process, which serves the aims of increasing the competiveness of enterprises and canalizing consumer preferences in a right way.Absolute grounds for refusal are limited grounds that are investigated by concerned official institutions on their own initiative as a consequence of the qualification regarding common interest and public order of a sign applied for registration, in this context do not need objection of related persons and hinder the registration of the sign as a trade mark strictly.The European Union legislation has a great importance for the purposes of our country. Because in the framework of 06.03.1995 dated and 1/95 numbered decision of Turkey-European Community Partnership Council, prior to the application of this decision, Turkey undertook to harmonize her legislation with 89/104 numbered Directive in the field of trade and service marks.In the scope of this thesis, the comprehension and effect of absolute grounds for refusal in Turkish and EU trademark law application are determined and some proposals for solution are enhanced concerning the problems which trademark owners and implementing institutions encounter. In this framework, the absolute grounds for refusal, which are described as to impair public interests in both Turkish law and acquis communitaire and for this reason identified with public order and public interest, are analyzed in a comparative way with international legislation.