Development Ministry orders probe into lack of info on Turkaegean trademark

Greece’s Development Ministry ordered on Wednesday an administrative inquiry to clarify why it was never informed in advance by the competent officials about Turkey’s successful effort to register the term “Turkaegean” with the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO). 

EUIPO granted the trademark last December to the Turkish Tourism Promotion and Development Agency. It will remain valid until July 2031. Ankara has coined the term “Turkaegean” in a tourism campaign to describe the “coast of happiness.”

The ministry said the issue was never reported to Development Minister Adonis Georgiadis, or the ministry by the relevant officials serving in the country’s national trademark office or on secondment to the EUIPO, so it could “take timely and appropriate political, diplomatic and official action.”

The probe will seek to any wrongdoing on behalf of employees at the former trademark directorate of the General Secretariat of Commerce of the Ministry of Development and Investment, the ministry added. 

On Tuesday, government spokesman Giannis Oikonomou said Greece will be taking recourse against the EUIPO decision to approve Ankara’s application.