Fighting counterfeits rests on a trademark registered in Türkiye, a method that distinguishes the genuine product from the fake in a way that can be proven, and a process that documents a detected infringement and brings it before the competent authority. Industrial Property Law No. 6769 (IPL) opens the routes of declaratory relief, injunction, damages and preliminary injunction in the civil courts, and imprisonment and judicial fines in the criminal courts. Customs Law No. 4458 allows counterfeit goods to be detained at the border. Every one of these routes asks for the same thing: proof that the product is counterfeit.
When is a counterfeit product a crime under Turkish law?
Article 29 of the IPL treats use of a trademark, or of a sign too similar to be distinguished from it, without the owner's permission as trademark infringement. Selling, distributing, importing, exporting or holding for commercial purposes products bearing such a mark, while knowing or being expected to know that it is counterfeit, falls under the same heading.
Article 30 provides imprisonment of one to three years and a judicial fine of up to twenty thousand days for anyone who, by copying (iktibas) or by creating likelihood of confusion (iltibas), infringes trademark rights by producing, offering for sale, selling, importing or exporting, buying for commercial purposes, holding, transporting or storing goods. Three details of this article are often overlooked in practice:
- A sentence can only be imposed if the trademark is registered in Türkiye.
- Investigation and prosecution depend on a complaint; the right holder starts the process.
- No sentence is imposed on a seller of counterfeit goods who discloses where the goods were obtained and thereby enables the producer to be identified and the goods to be seized.
The third provision means that a product caught at the point of sale can open the way to the producer. For that, the product and the finding need to be documented by the first conversation with the seller.
Why should the scope of registration be checked first?
Because the criminal provisions depend on registration, registration is the precondition for everything else. Trademark rights are territorial: registration in Türkiye protects in Türkiye, and applications in export markets rely on registration in those markets. The classes of goods and services the registration covers should also be compared with today's product range. A product group added later often falls outside an older registration, and this is usually only noticed while an infringement file is being prepared.
What can be requested from a civil court?
Article 149 of the IPL gives the holder of an infringed right the following claims:
- a declaration of whether the act constitutes infringement,
- prevention of a likely infringement and cessation of an ongoing one,
- removal of the infringement and compensation for material and moral damage,
- seizure of the infringing products and of the means used only for producing them,
- where necessary, alteration of the products, removal of the marks on them, or their destruction.
Because damage can grow while a case is pending, Article 159 opens the route of a preliminary injunction. If the right holder proves that infringement is taking place, or that serious and effective preparations are being made for it, an injunction can be requested. The measures include seizing counterfeit products wherever they are in Türkiye, including customs and free zones. Whether the request is granted depends on the evidence in hand from the first day.
How are counterfeit goods stopped at customs?
Under Article 57 of the Customs Law, detention of goods infringing intellectual and industrial property rights, or suspension of customs procedures, is carried out by the customs administration at the request of the right holder or their representative. If no application has been made and there is clear evidence of infringement, the administration may detain the goods ex officio for three working days so that the right holder can apply.
What follows is a race against time. If a preliminary injunction is not obtained from a court within three working days for perishable goods, or ten working days for other goods, from notification of the suspension to the right holder, the goods are processed under the regime requested by the declarant. Where there is a justified excuse, an extension of up to ten working days may be granted. Within that window you need to show that the goods at customs are not goods you produced. A customs application is therefore made together with a file prepared in advance and a method that can tell the product apart quickly.
The border is not enough on its own either. The 2025 OECD and EUIPO report shows seizures concentrating in ever smaller shipments; we cover the figures in the article on the scale of counterfeit trade. Goods spread through small parcels become visible in the market and in listings more than at the border.
What technical groundwork is needed to prove a counterfeit?
An injunction request, a customs application and a criminal complaint all raise the same question: on what basis do you say you did not make this product. Against a well-made copy, an answer based on looking at the packaging is weak. That is why the technical side of the fight is built before the product reaches the market, at the production stage.
- Making the packaging verifiable. Grafex embeds in the existing packaging design a signature invisible to the eye whose copy cannot pass verification. The look of the packaging does not change; company teams, dealers and end users verify the product with a mobile app.
- Giving the product a traceable identity. Tagvex identifies the product with a unique number at batch or unit level and records the points where it changes hands. A copied code shows up in the record as a repeated scan or a scan from an unexpected location.
The main contribution of both layers in legal proceedings is the record: which product was scanned, where, when and with what result. That record is a dated document that can be attached to an injunction request or a customs application. When a dispute deepens, laboratory analysis may still be needed; the field scan decides which products go for analysis.
How is counterfeiting in digital channels handled?
A counterfeit product often exists as a marketplace listing or a social media post before it reaches a buyer. We describe the notice-and-takedown mechanisms in these channels, the EU Digital Services Act and Turkish Law No. 6563 in detail in the article on marketplace and social media listings. Authex detects and prioritises risks in these channels and documents them with the listing capture, seller details, date and platform record; the same documentation can be used in a legal application where needed.
In what order is an anti-counterfeiting plan built?
- Rights. Compare the scope of registrations in Türkiye and in export markets with the product range.
- A way to tell products apart. Choose a method at packaging or label level whose copy cannot pass verification.
- Visibility. Monitor points of sale, the dealer channel and digital platforms regularly.
- Records. Store every finding in the same format, with date, location, images and verification result.
- Response readiness. Settle the attorney, documents and internal approval flow for customs applications, injunctions and complaints before an incident occurs.
- The source. Follow the trail from seller to supplier and from supplier to producer through the records.
The order and the tools depend on the product group and the channel where the problem appears. You can find the stages of our assessment on the page describing how we work, and the methods on the solutions page.
This article is for general information; in a specific dispute, advice should be sought from a trademark attorney or lawyer.
