<p>In a recent development, the Turkish Trademark Registry has revised its  practice in terms of prosecuting trademark application in class 35 covering  &lsquo;sales services&rsquo;.&nbsp; In light of this change, a trademark which is identical or  closely similar to an already registered trademark for &lsquo;sales service&rsquo; under  class 35, may be available to a third party for use and registration in class 35  for &lsquo;sales services&rsquo; if the product group is made specific.&nbsp;<br /><br />To clarify  further, the specification of service namely,<br /><br />&ldquo;the bringing together, for  the benefit of others, of a variety of goods (excluding the transport thereof),  enabling customers to conveniently view and purchase those  goods&rdquo;,<br /><br />included in class 35 of the Nice International Classification of  Goods and Services for Trademark Registration, is broad enough to cover the  sales services related to any products group.&nbsp; So, under the existing practice,  if a trademark is registered for &lsquo;sales services&rsquo; covering the above  specification of service (which is general in terms of product group) in class  35, a subsequent trademark identical or closely similar to the prior one by a  third party will be refused.&nbsp; Based on the newly introduced change in practice  however, such a subsequent trademark (identical or confusingly similar to the  prior trademark) by a third party will be accepted for registration, if the  specification of service depicted above specifies the product group.&nbsp; All such  subsequent identical or closely similar trademarks will also be accepted for  registration, as long as the specification of sales services for each trademark  specifies different product group.<br /><br />For example, if a trademark is  registered in class 35 covering the services &ldquo;the bringing together, for the  benefit of others, of a variety of goods, enabling customers to conveniently  view and purchase those goods&rdquo;,&nbsp;&nbsp; an identical or closely similar trademark will  still be registered for the above sales services, if the product group is  specified namely, &ldquo;the bringing together, for the benefit of others, of  confectionery products, enabling customers to conveniently view and purchase  those goods&rdquo;.&nbsp; Likewise, other identical or confusingly trademark will also be  registered for sales services pertaining to another product group namely, health  care products, and so on.<br /><br />In light of this changed practice, we strongly  advise the trademark owners those who have trademark protection in Turkey in  class 35 for &lsquo;sales services&rsquo; in general terms to file new application for their  trademarks specifying the product group they are interested or trading in.&nbsp; This  will help the trademark owners to protect their marks from being registered in  the name of third parties for &lsquo;sales services&rsquo; of their specific product group,  even if the trademark owners hold a registration for the mark in class 35 (for  sales services in general terms).<br /><br />It has been made clear by the  authorities that in the new practice, application for amendment of the  specification of services of the previous applications in view of this change  will not be accepted.</p>