Netflix animated ident logo becomes the first multimedia mark to be registered in Turkey

Industrial Property Law Number 6769, which went into effect in 2017, broadened the criteria for aspects of signs that can be registered as trademarks. The “graphical representation” requirement sought by Article 5 of the Decree Law Number 556 was replaced by “representation on the register” by Article 4 of the IP Law. This amendment has given way to the registration of multimedia marks.

A multimedia mark is a type of non-conventional trademark and consists of a combination of motion and sound. The Trademark Examination Guidelines published by the Turkish Patent and Trademark Office (TÜRKPATENT) in 2019 make explicit reference to multimedia marks by stating that motion marks do not include sound, sound marks do not include motion, and if a mark includes both motion and sound, it is evaluated as a multimedia mark.

Within this framework, Netflix filed applications with TÜRKPATENT in December 2020 for two versions of its animated ident logo, which is used at the beginning of its films and series (Applications 2020/160674 and 2020/160677). Netflix’s marks were registered on 2 August 2021 and 4 April 2022, respectively, and its animated ident logo is the first multimedia mark to be registered in Turkey.

This innovative approach by TÜRKPATENT towards non-conventional marks is expected to encourage companies to file new multimedia marks. It should nevertheless be kept in mind that multimedia marks, as with other types of marks, should meet the basic requirement of being clear and precise and distinguish the goods and/or services of an undertaking from those of others to be granted protection.