Article 5 of the law accepts such a sign as a trademark as long as the sign can be graphically represented and is capable of distinguishing an entity’s goods or services from those belonging to others. In other words, the law requires a sign to be distinctive and this is the point where problems occur.
The distinctiveness test for three-dimensional trademarks differs from the distinctiveness test relating to traditional trademarks. In principle, the Turkish Patent Institute (TPI) takes the following criteria into account: