Family members embroiled in dispute over 150-year-old brand

Özge Eğrikar - ISTANBUL

In a long-standing trademark battle for the famous 155-year-old Istanbul's Vefa Bozacısı, which sells traditional fermented beverage, one of the heirs has filed a new lawsuit claiming that the word “Vefa” cannot be registered as a trademark as it is a neighborhood name.

In 1870, Hacı Sadık Efendi, the founder of Vefa Bozacısı, started selling "boza," a thick, slightly fermented millet drink, in Istanbul.

The brother of Hacı Sadık Efendi, Hacı İbrahim Efendi, left their partnership seven years after the death of his older brother and transferred his shares to his nephew İsmail Vefa by releasing all his rights and receivables.

Allegedly, about 11 years after Hacı İbrahim Efendi's death in 1944, disputes arose within the Vefa family.

İsmail Vefa filed a lawsuit when Hacı İbrahim Efendi's son, Yusuf Ziya Vefa, started selling boza in 1955 under the title of "Vefa Bozacısı."

After the lawsuit, Yusuf Ziya Vefa was banned from using the trademark. In 1978, the lawsuit filed by Yusuf Ziya Vefa against İsmail Vefa was rejected.

After a while, some of Hacı İbrahim Efendi's grandchildren applied to the court for the second time for the cancellation of the "Vefa Bozacısı" trademark.

Many other lawsuits were filed against each other between the family members over the years.

The last lawsuit between the descendants of the two brothers was filed by Naime Banu Vefa Tashkandi, the granddaughter of Hacı İbrahim Efendi.

According to the petition submitted to the court by Tashkandi, who filed a lawsuit against Vefa Bozacısı for the "cancellation of the trademark," the word "Vefa" was one of the oldest districts of Istanbul, located in the historical peninsula. The word "Vefa," named after Sheikh Vefa, an important religious scholar of the Ottoman period, was a geographical sign and an anonymous expression.

The petition explained that tradesmen in that region also use the phrase "Vefa" in their workplaces and products, stating the names specified as geographical sources in the field of commerce cannot be registered as trademarks, therefore requesting the name’s invalidation from the records of the Turkish Patent and Trademark Office (TPI).