Innovator Companies Seek to Protect Themselves Against Generic Companies
In order to contribute to human health, innovative pharmaceutical companies carry out studies that take many years and require huge amounts of investment and research, and as a result, they obtain patent protection for their inventions for a limited period of time. It is very important that the patent rights, which are limited only for a certain period of time, can be used and protected effectively. Applying for abridged marketing authorisation (MA) by referencing the… »
Claiming Compensation for IP Infringement
IP right owners suffer a huge amount of damages in some IP right infringement cases as they invest substantial amounts for their rights. Therefore, compensation claims are of vital importance for IP right owners in order to recover their damages, protect reputation and have a deterrent impact on the infringing party. Since every IP right infringement act is primarily a tort, it is necessary to prove the wrongful act, fault of the infringing party, incurred damage and the… »
Is Digital Service Tax Dead Already? Legal Barriers in the Way of Collecting Digital Service Tax in 2020
New taxes entered into our lives with the Act numbered 7194 which was published in the Official Gazette on 7 December 2019. One of these taxes is Digital Service Tax. The law provides that digital service providers are liable for this tax at a ratio of 7,5% over the revenue they generate from their digital services. The examples of such digital services include games, software, applications, music, video, online advertisement and online market place services. If tax payers… »
Court of Appeal Reverses Own Decision in WING CHUN Case
The First-Instance IP Court rejected a request for the invalidation of the mark WING CHUN in Classes 41 and 45, and the Court of Appeal affirmed On further appeal, the Court of Appeal reversed its own opinion The court held that the mark should be invalidated for some of the remaining services in Class 41 Background In 2011 the defendant applied to register the trademark WING CHUN in Classes 41 and 45, including sports activities, educational services, organisation of… »
Processing of Personal Data in COVID-19 Outbreak
The world is struggling with an unprecedented crisis seen in recent human history. Governments have taken serious measures to combat the outbreak and Covid-19 was declared to be a "pandemic" by the World Health Organization. Within the scope of the measures taken, data controllers, public authorities or private companies, are in need of processing personal data with different methods to protect health and limit the spread of the infection through contact tracing and requiring… »
What Does Labour Law Say About COVID-19?
Introduction On 11 March 2020 the Ministry of Health announced that the first case of coronavirus (COVID-19) had been diagnosed in Turkey. At the time of writing, 46 additional cases have been confirmed and the total number has reached up to 47. This pandemic will inevitably affect labour law; as part of employers' duty to protect employees, they must take occupational health and safety measures and protect employees' health and physical and mental integrity. Employers'… »
Impact of Coronavirus on Contracts and Force Majeure
The Course of Coronavirus Outbreak and Its Economic Impacts Coronavirus, first seen in December 2019 in Wuhan, China, and causing Covid-19 (coronavirus disease), has spread to all continents except Antarctica and 127 countries in as little as three months, and as of the date of this article, the number of confirmed coronavirus cases worldwide has exceeded 134.000 while the number of deaths has exceeded 4.900. On March 12, 2020, World Health Organization declared coronavirus… »
Insights as to Turkish Copyright Law
What can content creators do to protect themselves? Copyright protection is mainly regulated under Turkish Intellectual and Artistic Works Law No. 5846 (referred to as Law No. 5846 hereafter). As to the Turkish Copyright Law, protection shall start with the creation and publication of the work to the public which meets the conditions under the Law No. 5846. Therefore neither registration of the copyright owned work with any competent authority nor confirmation of the same is… »
Scope of Protection of Weak Marks in Turkey
In a decision published on 18 December 2019, the Turkish Court of Cassation (COC) ruled that trade marks inspired by descriptive words, which are not allowed to be monopolized, are weak trade marks and cannot be protected like trade marks with a high distinctiveness. Even small differences can make these trade marks distinctive, and owners of weak marks cannot oppose the registration of the same signs with different elements. Mutlu Yıldırım Köse explains Plaintiff's… »
Key Developments and Predictions for Patent Law in Turkey – 2020
It has been three years since the Industrial Property Law, which combined different Decree Laws on specific IP rights, came into force. The fourth book of the Law introduces relatively new provisions regarding the patent system in Turkey that bring the national law into line with the European Patent Convention (EPC). Although it is too early for the implications of the new law to have come to light, working requirements and compulsory licensing remain the most questioned… »
Declaration of Use and Compulsory License
The new IP Law (the “Law”) numbered 6769 abolished the provisions on “the use requirement of patents,” and “the evidence of use” of the Decree Law Pertaining to the Protection of Patent Rights. The Law now focuses on the requirements of use for patents within the provision of a Compulsory License. Accordingly, a patent owner must make use of the patented invention within three years following publication of its granted decision in the Official Bulletin (‘the Bulletin’) or… »
Difficulties of Enforcing Patent Rights on NPP Products
The supply of pharmaceutical products to Turkey via the named patient programme (the “NPP”) is one of the exceptional importation regimes for pharmaceutical products. Where a pharmaceutical product is not granted marketing authorisation in Turkey, but patients are in need of it, it can be supplied via this special route. The entities that are authorised to import pharmaceuticals within the scope of the NPP are the Turkish Pharmacists’ Association (the “TEB”) and the Ibn-i… »