Bad faith remains a recurring and complex issue in trademark law, particularly where applications are filed to obtain an unfair advantage, restrict competitors or otherwise misuse the trademark registration system. The assessment of bad faith under Turkish law has developed through legislation and case law, with the circumstances of each application playing a central role.
In their article “Evaluation of Bad Faith in Trademark Applications Under Turkish Trademark Law,”…
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The “Guideline Regarding the Naming of Human Medicinal Products” (“Guideline”) was published with an announcement dated 31 July 2026 on the official website of the Turkish Medicines and Medical Devices Agency (“Agency”).
According to the information provided in the announcement, the Guideline aims to provide guidance on matters to be taken into account when determining names for medicinal products for human use and outlines the procedures and principles governing the process…
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The Constitutional Court, in its decision dated 27.01.2026 and numbered 2020/32193, published in the Official Gazette dated 16.06.2026, determined that the administrative fine imposed by the Personal Data Protection Board (the “Board”) on a data controller on grounds that the concept of the ‘purpose for which the data was made public’ is not regulated under the law and administrative fine imposed based on the relevant concept violates the principle of legality of offences and…
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Legislation
Treaties
Is your country party to any bilateral or multilateral treaties for the reciprocal recognition and enforcement of foreign judgments? What is the country’s approach to entering into these treaties, and what, if any, amendments or reservations has your country made to such treaties?
Except for those concerning family law, Türkiye is not a signatory to multilateral treaties for the reciprocal recognition and enforcement of foreign judgments. However, Türkiye…
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A final Turkish judgment has held that a trademark owner cannot be charged storage fees arising from the custody of counterfeit goods after they have been seized in criminal proceedings. Significantly, the court found that the trademark owner was the victim of the infringement and that the proper addressee of the storage fees was the owner of the counterfeit goods.
Background
The dispute concerned 264,740 units of counterfeit Colgate toothpaste weighing approximately 27.7…
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Trade mark squatting has unfortunately become increasingly common in Türkiye in recent years. Bad-faith applicants often identify trade marks that are registered and genuinely used abroad but have not yet been registered in Türkiye, file applications for those marks in their own names and then attempt to sell the registrations or present themselves as the rightful proprietors of the trade marks. In another common scenario, bad-faith applicants use the registrations they have…
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The Bolar exemption was originally conceived as a limited mechanism enabling generic and biosimilar manufacturers to complete the regulatory steps necessary to enter the market immediately after patent expiry. The EU Pharma Package now seeks to broaden the exemption substantially, both in terms of the activities covered and the parties entitled to rely on it. This development invites a re-examination of Turkiye’s long-standing – and already notably broad – interpretation of…
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With its decision published in the Official Gazette on 17 March 2026, the Constitutional Court brought renewed attention to a significant issue that had long been overlooked in relation to limited liability companies. The Constitutional Court held that requiring a general assembly majority for the exclusion of a shareholder in two-shareholder limited liability companies creates a practical deadlock. Accordingly, the Court annulled, in respect of two-shareholder limited…
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Introduction
Intellectual property law provides for various protection mechanisms aimed at safeguarding creative works; such that, depending on the nature of the product or creative works, it is possible to apply for more than one means of protection simultaneously. In this context, designs that meet the necessary criteria may be protected by both design rights under the Industrial Property Code No. 6769 (“IP Code”) and as work under the Law on Intellectual and Artistic Works…
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The acceleration of digitalization, the widespread adoption of internet-based uses, and the increasing interaction between artificial intelligence (“AI”) systems and copyright-protected content necessitate greater legal certainty regarding the position of rights holders and the development of mechanisms enabling them to effectively exercise their rights. To address this need, the The Proposal Amending the Law No. 5846 on Intellectual and Artistic Works ("Proposal") was…
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Digital advertising has undergone a significant transformation in recent years. Advertisers increasingly rely on data relating to consumers’ online behaviour, interests, and preferences to deliver personalised advertisements, while artificial intelligence technologies are becoming more widely used in the creation of advertising content, the use of digital characters, and interactions with consumers. Although these technological developments have enabled advertisements to…
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Under the Law, the Board has the authority to impose administrative sanctions. It is stipulated that the Board may impose administrative fines for failure to comply with the duty to provide information, obligations relating to data security, failure to comply with decisions issued by the Board, breaches of registration and notification obligations under the Register of Data Controllers, or breaches of the notification obligation regarding standard contracts. In addition to…
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