Letters of Consent Under the Turkish Industrial Property Code
Unlike many countries, Turkish trade mark law has had a rule since 1995 that a senior tradegistration or application identical or indistinguishably similar to a junior trade mark application can be raised as an absolute ground for refusal if the goods/services are also identical or of the same type. The Turkish Industrial Property Code (the IP Code), which entered into force on January 10 2017, softened this rule, and in cases where an applicant submits anotarised document to… »
Overview of the Law on Amendments to the Enforcement and Bankruptcy Law and Other Laws
The Law on Amendments to the Enforcement and Bankruptcy Law and Other Laws, which was published in the Official Gazette no. 30361 and entered into force on March 15, 2018 (“the Amendment Law”), amends particularly Enforcement and Bankruptcy Law and other laws such as Law on Collection Procedure of Public Receivables, Law on Notifications, Law on Fees, Law on Cooperatives, International Arbitration Law, Law on the Establishment, Duties and Jurisdiction of First Instance… »
Reform Introduces Requirement to Mediate Before an Employment Claim
New legislation came into force in January 2018 that will require employees to submit to mediation before commencing most employment-related claims. The Labor Courts Act No. 7036 (Act) aims to ease the judiciary’s workload and accelerate the judicial process in employment cases. The most significant changes include the following: Mandatory mediation is introduced for both employers and employees prior to initiating lawsuits. There is a new obligation on courts to provide… »
Life Sciences Newsletter, March 2018
Advertising ban on contact lenses Dicle Doğan and Nehir Aydeniz, Gün+Partners The Turkish Medicines and Medical Devices Agency has announced that contact lenses are considered to be medical devices that cannot be advertised to the public. The Regulation on the Sales, Advertisement, and Promotion of Medical Devices dated 15 May 2014 states that advertising a medical device to the public is prohibited if that medical device has to be exclusively used or applied by a healthcare… »
Proposed Amendments to Automatic Enrolment in Private Pension Plan System
The Amendment Act of August 25 2016 introduced into Turkish law the automatic enrolment of employees in private pension plans. As a result, employees under the age of 45 must be enrolled in a private pension plan as part of a pension agreement between their employer and a pension company. These provisions entered into force on January 1 2017, but the regulation is being applied gradually depending on how many employees a company has. To date, employees of companies with at… »
Roundtable Meeting Report on “Invalidation of an EP by the National Court While the Opposition Procedures Continue Before the EPO”
FICPI-Turkey held its first roundtable meeting on the possibility of protecting a validated European Patent in Turkey (after being limited or amended by the EPO during the opposition process) where the EP case is invalidated by the national court prior to the conclusion of the opposition.The Board of Directors of FICPI-Turkey chose the above subject as the topic for the opening roundtable meeting in order to canvas fair solutions to the problem, in line with the legislation… »