Welcome Reforms to Trade Mark Protection
Turkey’s long-awaited Industrial Property Code number 6769 has entered into force upon publication in the Official Gazette on January 10 2017. The IP Code is mostly welcome as the Turkish IP regime has needed reform for a long time. Except for copyright, the main IP rights, namely patents, geographical Indications, industrial designs and trade marks were all regulated in the form of decree-laws which entered into force 20 years ago. The legal texts were mostly compatible with… »
Patent Provisions of Turkey’s New IP Law
The long-awaited Industrial Property Law numbered 6769 finally came into force in Turkey on January 10 2017. The new law regulates all IP rights in a single code. It consists of 193 articles and six provisional articles divided into five chapters. The first four books of the law regulate trade marks, geographical indications, designs and patent rights respectively. The name of the Turkish Patent Institute has changed to the Turkish Patent and Trademark Office (TPTO) with… »
Amendments to the Advertisement Regulation
Turkish Regulation on Commercial Advertisement and Unfair Commercial Practices (“Regulation”) which is the main regulation regarding advertising has been amended with an amending regulation published in the Official Gazette dated 4 January 2017 and numbered 29938 (“Amending Regulation”). The Amending Regulation, first of all, postpones the enforcement date for the rule allowing the use of name or trademark of the competitor in the comparative advertisement. This rule has been… »
New Industrial Property Code Now in Force
The IP Code has now replaced the respective Decree-Laws pertaining to the protection of trademarks, patents, geographical indications, and industrial designs, unifying them into a single code. The Decree-Laws on the protection of trademarks, patents, and industrial designs will continue to apply to international and national trademark, design, and patent applications filed before January 10, 2017. The application of the old system ends once the application is registered.… »
Corporate Liability: Applicable Criminal Penalties
Introduction Corporate liability remains a highly problematic and criticised issue in Turkey. In Turkish criminal law practice, criminal liability is deemed as personal, and criminal penalties can be imposed only on natural persons for crimes committed under a corporate body. Although the fact that corporate bodies can also commit crimes has long been established by the precedents of the Constitutional Court,(1) criminal penalties are not specifically regulated under the… »
How to Tackle with Data Protection Compliance Projects in Turkey
Following the enactment of the Law on the Protection of Personal Data numbered 6698 (“Data Protection Law”) on April 07, 2016, many organizations began reviewing their level of compliance with the Data Protection Law and initiate conducting compliance projects. Under the Data Protection Law, companies have a transition period of two years meaning that personal data that has been processed prior to the enactment of the law must be brought in compliance with the provisions of… »