Yours and Mine: Protect Your Law Firm’s Intellectual Property Assets
Creating and maintaining a reputabie and trusted brand has become increasingly important for all law firms. Trademarks and copyrights are the most important IP rights for law firms and should be given a high level of attention by senior management. Trademarks form the legal basis for protecting a law firm’s brand, while copyrights form the legal basis for protecting its knowledge. In order to have a successful and sustainable business, both the firm’s brand and knowledge need… »
Court Clarifies Differences in Scope Between Articles 7/1(b) and 8/1(b) of Decree Law
The Court of Appeal has established and clarified the differences in scope and implementation between Article 7/1(b) and Article 8/1(b) of the Turkish Decree Law 556 pertaining to the Protection of Trademarks (Decision 2010/10214E). Article 7/1(b) provides that the Turkish Patent Institute (TPI) can reject ex officio trademark applications that are identical, or indistinguishably similar, to earlier trademarks or trademark applications. In contrast, Article 8/1(b) provides… »
How to Combat Persistent Infringement
As a bridge between Europe and Asia, Turkey’s unique a geographic location has always been an attractive venue for IP infringers. It is not an exaggeration to say that almost all IP owners could recount at least one infringement experience in Turkey. It is also very common to hear complaints that the enforcement tools are not efficient enough to overcome the persistent activities of the dedicated, and in some cases very creative infringers in Turkey. While it may be true that… »
Court of Appeal Considers 'Likelihood of Association' and 'Trademark Series' Concepts
First, the IP Court had determined that 'W' was the main and distinctive part of the trademarks that were the basis of the opposition, and that 'king' is a word that is commonly used to identify quality, especially in the temporary accommodation and hotel management sector, which fell within the scope of protection of the trademarks. Further, it established that the addition of the word element 'king', even though it is visually and aurally dissimilar to the earlier… »
Court of Appeal Considers Likelihood of Association and Trademark Series Concepts
On December 3 2012 the 11th Civil Chamber of the Court of Appeal upheld a decision of the Ankara Second IP Court in which the latter had determined that the trademark W-KING was confusingly similar to the trademarks W (and device), W RETREAT & SPA, W HOTELS and W HOTELS (and device) in Classes 37 and 43 of the Nice Classification. The IP Court found that adding a word element to the distinctive part of a mark is insufficient to create distinctiveness and eliminate the… »
Directors’ and Officers Liability Insurance in View of the New Turkish Commercial Code
Ι. Introduction and General Background The use of directors’ and officers’ (“D&O”) liability insurance is relatively new and limited in Turkey. The new and elevated standards on corporate governance rules introduced by the new Turkish Commercial Code {“the TCC”) such as the introduction of universal accounting and auditing standards and rules for increase of transparency is expected to support the operability of liability provisions and lead to increase in demand for… »