Protecting Non-Traditional Trademarks
Non-traditional trademarks refer to marks which are not traditionally perceived as trademarks. Some examples are colour, sound, motion, position and 3D views of products etc. Non-traditional trademarks are not specifically described in the Turkish Industrial Property Code (the IP Code) which came into force on January 10 2017 in Turkey. Since there is no special provision in the code regarding the registration of non-traditional trademarks, the principles pertaining to the… »
Assessing the Difficulties of Enforcing Patent Rights over NPP Products
The supply of pharmaceutical products to Turkey via the named patient programme (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 from abroad within the scope of the NPP are the Turkish Pharmacists’ Association (TEB) and the Ibn-i Sina… »
Discovery of Evidence Not being Subject to Bolar Exemption
Discovery of evidence and actions for determination of evidence are separately regulated under the rocedural Law. Discovery of evidence is a preliminary step taken before any action on merits and it only serves to discover and record the evidence that may be relevant to an ongoing or future action on merits. It must be emphasised that there is no full and frank disclosure procedure under the Turkish civil law system unlike the US and UK systems. In other words, the parties… »
Turkish Regulations Amended To Restrict Importation of Healthcare Products
Yalçın Umut Talay and Fatma Sevde Tan, Gun + Partners On 3 April 2019, an amendment (Turkish language) to the Communiqué on the Permit to be obtained by Public Institutions for Imports numbered 2018/2 (Turkish language) was published in the Official Gazette. The Communiqué regulates how public entities obtain a permit from the Ministry of Trade to import goods that are not exempt from customs duty. The Communiqué establishes three kinds of goods: · Goods that require… »
Eu Requests WTO Consultations on Turkish Measures Affecting Imported Pharmaceuticals
Dicle Doğan and Fatma Sevde Tan, Gun + Partners In a letter dated 2 April 2019 to the World Trade Organization (WTO), the EU’s Permanent Mission to the WTO has requested consultations with the government of Turkey in relation to measures that it has introduced to regulate the production, importation and marketing of pharmaceutical products in Turkey. In its request, the EU claims that the “competitive opportunities” of pharmaceutical products imported to Turkey are… »
Patents in Europe: Helping Business Compete in the Global Economy 2019/2020
Q: What options are open to a patent owner seeking to enforce its rights in your jurisdiction? Article 149 of the Industrial Property Code 6769 (IP Code) sets the legal framework for claims that can be asserted by the rights holder and the scope of the injunctions that can be granted by the court. Accordingly, a person can request the court to: determine whether the third party infringes the patent; decide on the prevention of the infringement; decide to stop the action that… »
Key Developments and Predictions for Patent Law in Turkey – 2019
When the Industrial Property Law came into force on 10 January 2017, the introduction of the post grant opposition procedure for national patent applications or the new “satisfying national market’s need” criteria concerning compulsory license due to non-use of the patent appeared to be of the most significance. However, as usual, the devil was hidden in the detail. When we first put the new law into practice, we experienced that other provisions such as the use requirement… »
Review of Information Obligation in light of CNIL’s Google Decision
One of the most important obligations of data controllers under data protection laws is to inform the data subjects concerning data processing activities. Accordingly, the Turkish Law on Protection of Personal Data numbered 6698 (“DPL”) also imposes an obligation on data controllers to provide certain information to data subjects before processing their data. Pursuant to Article 10 of the DPL regulating the information obligation, a data controller must inform the data… »
Trademark Rights vs. Freedom of Expression: A Recent Decision of the Turkish Constitutional Court
A discussion whether the freedom of expression is violated by prohibiting the access to a website where a trademark of a third company is used in the domain name was heard before the Turkish Constitutional Court (“the Court”) upon an individual application. In order to understand the ruling of the Court, it is worth looking at the history of the dispute. Using a trademark of a reputable cargo company “yurtiçikargo” in a domain name as “yurticikargomagdurları.com”, having the… »
FICPI Turkey – Seminar on Amendments on the Trademark and Patent Registration Procedures Brought by the IP Code and Their Implementations
FICPI – TURKEY Board of Directors decided as the subject of this year’s seminar amendments to the trademark and patent registration procedures by the IP Code and their implementation. The seminar was held in İstanbul on October 26, 2018 and there were around 75 participants in addition to the speakers and FICPI – TURKEY members. At the first session on patents, the speakers discussed amendments on the provisions as to compulsory licenses and proof of use; and at the second… »
New Regulation on Clinical Trials of Traditional and Complementary Medicine Practice
Dicle Doğan and Aysu Eryaşar, Gun + Partners On 9 March 2019, the Regulation on the Clinical Trials of Traditional and Complementary Medicine Practice (Turkish language) was published in Official Gazette no. 30709. The Regulation provides clarification on which ethics committee should approve these clinical trials and on the institution that should give permission for the initiation, continuation, termination and supervision of the regulated activities. The Regulation also… »
New Obligation for Registration of Medical Device Technical Service Providers and Related Technical Staff
Dicle Doğan and Fatma Sevde Tan, Gun + Partners On 14 February 2019, the Medicines and Medical Devices Agency published Circular on the Registration of Medical Device Technical Service Providers and Related Technical Staff (Turkish language), numbered 2019/1. Pursuant to the Circular, medical device technical service providers subject to after-sales maintenance and repair are obliged to register on the Product Track and Trace System. The registries became operational on 1… »