Twitter to seek rights in Turkey as Periscope name changes in country due to trademark litigation

Ahmet Can - ISTANBUL

Twitter has said it will continue to seek its rights in Turkey after its live stream app Periscope was forced to change its name due to a Turkish company’s complaint to a court regarding similar names. 

The company changed the name of its app in Turkey on March 31 to “Scope” to ensure the continued availability of its services to Turkish users amid the ongoing litigation.

Representatives from the company said they would continue to defend themselves. 

“The trademark litigation against Periscope in Turkey is still ongoing. We believe the suit is meritless. We have for now changed the name of our app to ‘Scope’ to ensure the continued availability of our services to Turkish users,” the company said, adding that they also changed their URL for all users to make sure its services remain uninterrupted in Turkey.

They noted that the company would continue to seek its rights in Turkey. 

A Turkish company, “Periskop Communications and Production Services,” sued the U.S. company on the grounds that the company violated its trademark rights. On March 31, the court found the Turkish firm right and decided to halt the mobile app and web operations of Periscope as a precautionary measure. The U.S. company reacted rapidly and unveiled its Scope brand, for which it had previously acquired the copyrights.
Gökhan Selamet, who founded Periskop in 2010, said he started to face serious trademark complications after Periscope came online in Turkey in 2015.
 
“I took the patent and trademark rights for my company. After Periscope came online in 2015, I started to face serious complications. For instance, people started to call us to launch live stream services, which were offered by Periscope but not by us. I then started the legal action to protect my company. There is no reason beyond the copyright issues here,” he added.