Having Valid Trademark Registration No Longer Creates Immunity Against Infringement Claims
Bakırköy 1st Civil IP Court, in an invalidation action against a registered trademark where trademark infringement and unfair competition is also claimed due to use of the challenged registered trademark, decided to accept the case and ordered for invalidation of the challenged trademark registration as per senior trademark rights of the plaintiff, also decided for determination and revocation of the trademark infringement and unfair competition caused due to use of the… »
V Versus V: Assessment of Similarity Between One-letter Trademarks
The IP Court found that there was no likelihood of confusion between the parties’ ‘V’ marks, contradicting the expertreport’s evaluation Versace’s mark included fi gurative elements that rendered it distinctive, while the plaintiff’s marks included descriptivephrases The decision confi rms that the likelihood of confusion assessment shall be stricter when it comes to one-letter trademarks Background An opposition was fi led against Gianni Versace SRL’s trademark application… »
Advertisement Containing Blurred Images of Rivals’ Products is Banned
The Advertisement Board rendered an important decision regarding comparative advertising practice on August 9, 2022. The decision pertains to the advertisement published in the catalogue offered to consumers monthly by a globally-known cosmetics and fragrance company which compared two of its fragrances with the products of two world-famous fragrance brands. The advertisement published in the catalogue of the advertiser regarding its products contains the expressions of “It… »
Substantial Amendments to the Regulation on Distance Contracts
Several amendments were made to the Law on the Protection of the Consumer (the “Law”) on April 1, 2022, most of which will come into force on October 1, 2022. We have evaluated the amendments made to the Law comprehensively.[1] In line with those amendments, substantial additions and amendments were also made in the Regulation on Distance Contracts (the “Regulation”) as published in the Official Gazette dated August 23, 2022 and numbered 31932. Many of the amendments to the… »
Draft Guideline on Processing Genetic Data
The Personal Data Protection Authority (the “DPA”) published the Draft Guideline on the Issues for Consideration about Processing of Genetic Data (the “Draft Guideline”) on August 24, 2022. The DPA indicated the importance of genetic data and emphasized that the information acquired by processing genetic data, which is data of special nature as per Law on Protection of Personal Data (“DPL”), is extremely sensitive and might have results that can affect the entire society. For… »
Recent Legal Updates Regarding NFTs First Preliminary Injunction Regarding NFTs Issued by a Court in Turkey
Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs), which are among the hottest topics as of 2021 are discussed at court decisions in various jurisdictions, and similarly in Turkey, Istanbul 3rd Civil Intellectual Property Court (“IP Court”) rendered a preliminary injunction regarding NFTs on June 21, 2022. The subject of the dispute pertains to exploitation of the portrait of the late Cem Karaca, who is an artist, songwriter and composer with a legendary reputation in Anatolian Rock music. In the… »