Turkish firm agrees with Idaho state

ISTANBUL

The U.S. state of Idaho’s reaction to an application made by a Turkish company to trademark the word “Idaho” is reasonable, as geographical marks provide a competitive advantage for regions, Kaan Dericioğlu, the general manager of Ankara Patent has said.

“There might be some technical details with the application, but the real issues here are the geographical marks and the competitive advantage that these marks supply for their whereabouts, region or country. The interest from the U.S. Senate proves the economic perspective of the topic,” he said. “In Turkey, the importance of this issue has not been recognized as it has been in developed countries,” the general manager said, despite their patent institution’s efforts to do so. 

By neglecting the brand value of geographical names, Turkey has been passing up an important market opportunity, he said, noting a Chinese city called Hereke that profits from manufacturing carpets with exactly the same name as the Turkish province of Hereke, also famous for its carpets.