Conditions for Pharmaceutical Exporters Other than Pharmaceutical Warehouses is Published
On 29 December 2023, the Turkish Medicines and Medical Devices Agency (“Agency”) has published Guidelines on the Conditions for Pharmaceutical Export Made by Companies Other than Pharmaceutical Warehouses (the “Guidelines”). The Guidelines has been prepared in order to ensure the shipment and export of pharmaceutical products and dietary foods for special medical purpose in compliance with national and international standards, while protecting public health. The Guidelines… »
Guidelines on Medical Device Meetings Has Been Updated
On 4 January 2024, the Turkish Medicines and Medical Devices Agency (“Agency”) announced on its official website that the Guidelines on Scientific Meetings and Educational Events to be Held within the Scope of the Regulation on the Sales, Advertisement and Promotion of Medical Devices (“Guidelines”) has been updated. Within the scope of the update, only in the third paragraph of Article 9 of the Guidelines, which came into force on 04 January 2024, the following issues have… »
Aggravated Scrutiny for Consumer Reviews
Consumer reviews are of great importance in online shopping as they enable consumers to form their opinion in terms of the features and quality of the products or services that they consider purchasing and the care and professionalism the sellers and providers present to consumers. Due to the decisive impact of consumer reviews on consumers’ shopping preferences, the Regulation on Commercial Advertising and Unfair Commercial Practices ("Regulation") were amended on February… »
Trademark Filing History May Result in Finding of Bad Faith Under Turkish Law
It is widely accepted in the literature[1] and decisions of the Court of Cassation[2] (“CoC”) that an applicant's attempt to create a trademark portfolio by trying to register other well-known trademarks can be sufficient to constitute proof of bad faith. In this context, first instance courts and regional courts of appeals will examine the applicant's other trademark applications and might accept that the registration of the disputed trademark was attempted in bad faith… »
EUROPATENT Case Considers Re-examination and Evaluation Board’s Discretion to Examine Absolute Grounds for Refusal
This long-running case went all the way to the Court of Cassation The Trademarks Department had partially refused the application for EUROPATENT on the grounds of descriptiveness and lack of distinctiveness; the board then decided ex officio to refuse the application for all the services applied for, citing additional grounds for refusal The case was analysed under the provisions of the now-repealed Decree Law No 556, which was in force at the relevant date Absolute… »
Turkey's New Trademark Revocation System: Administrative Changes Effective January 2024
Administrative revocation will be possible before the Office as of 10 January 2024. According to Article 9 of the Industrial Property Law No. 6769 (“IPL”), if a trademark is not used in five years as of its registration date or its use is suspended for a consecutive period of five years; it will be vulnerable to revocation due to non-use. Revocation of trademarks based on non-use were traditionally filed as a court action before the specialized IP courts under the previous… »