Twitter’s Periscope to be blocked in Turkey if it does not change name

ISTANBUL

Periscope, a live video streaming app owned by Twitter, will be blocked in Turkey if it keeps the same name, a Turkish court has ruled in a controversial trademark case. 

A Turkish advertising company titled Periscope İletişim had sued Twitter, as well as Apple and Google, at the Istanbul 2nd Court of Intellectual Property Rights last year.

The company said it had registered the trademark in Turkey before Periscope was founded in the U.S. in 2015. It claimed that Twitter’s mobile app, its account @Periscopeco and its website www.periscope.tv violated its trademark, while Google and Apple boosted this violation by favoring the U.S. company on their platforms.

Doğan News Agency reported that the court on June 12 ordered Twitter to comply with the Turkish law regarding its use of the Periscope brand. If Twitter continues to use the Periscope brand in Turkey, the ruling says, then the live streaming app, as well as its @periscopeco account on Twitter and its website on www.periscope.tv, would be blocked by the authorities.

Twitter, as well as Google and Apple, are expected to appeal the ruling.

Twitter’s attorney Ceyda Karaoğlan had stressed in the court hearings that the business sectors of the two companies were “completely different.”

“There was no legal obligation for an American company to be aware of the presence of the brand in Turkey,” she had also said.

Google and Apple attorneys also asked the court to dismiss the case, arguing that they were not in a position to decide on trademark issues.