Due to the COVID-19 outbreak, the Turkish Parliament has 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.)
In the meantime, the Turkish Patent and Trademark Office has announced that this suspension is also valid for the terms specified in the Industrial Property Law No. 6769.
Should the outbreak continue, the suspension may be prolonged for a maximum period of 6 months.
All court hearings are already postponed to later days, differing from court to court, but the first next hearing will not be before mid-April. Courts and public prosecutors are still handling urgent matters however delays should be expected as a considerable number of staff including judges are on leave. The Ministry of Justice has advised parties to refrain from new filings.
Customs operations including seizures are running despite the fact that most borders are closed to human crossing.
For the reason that most businesses are either closed or have changed their way of business, we are advising our clients to hold off any actions necessitating on-site visits such as investigations, raids and evidence securing.
We will continue with our operations in the normal course and meeting the usual deadlines where possible in the absence of instructions to the contrary from our clients.
We look forward to healthy days ahead of us.
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