The 81st ICANN meeting (ICANN 81) was held in Istanbul, Türkiye, in November 2024, offering a significant platform for global discussions on internet governance, domain names, and online policy. The ICANN 81 meeting underscored the importance of evolving global internet governance, particularly through advancements in the New gTLD Program and initiatives like the Registration Data Request Service (RDRS). While these developments highlight strides toward inclusivity and…
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Article 83 of Law No. 5846 on Intellectual and Artistic Works stipulates that the names of works can be protected independently of the works themselves under the provisions on unfair competition. Our assessment of this protection is discussed in our article, 'Protection of Work Titles'1.
An important aspect of work title protection is their registration as trademarks. In practice, it is common for elements of cinematographic works, such as characters and locations, as well as…
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Background
A Turkish company operating in the pharmaceutical sector, which owns the registered trademarks BATIKAR and BATISOL in Class 5, filed an infringement action against a pharmaceutical company selling antiseptic disinfectants under the trademark MIRADERM BATIMER.
The plaintiff argued that the expression ‘batimer’ was similar to their BATIKAR and BATISOL trademarks, particularly due to the shared ‘bati’ element, and that there was a likelihood of confusion.
Decisions
In…
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The acts deemed as infringement of a trademark are listed under Article 29 of the Industrial Property Code No. 6769 (“IP Code”), and the claims that the right holders whose trademark rights have been infringed may request from the courts and that they may assert against the infringing party are detailed in Article 149 of the same Code.
Although it is possible for the right holder to assert the claims outlined in the Code against the infringing party as long as the…
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At the end of 2024, Turkish Patent and Trademark Office (“the Office”) made a significant move by publishing a revised communiqué on the classification of goods and services for trademark registration applications. The changes, which came into effect following their publication in the Official Gazette on 20 December 2024, align the Turkish classification system with the latest updates made to the Nice Classification. These revisions aim to make the trademark application…
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The well-known trademark registry of the Turkish Patent and Trademark Office (“the Office”) became a discussion topic after the Turkish Court of Cassation decided in 2020 that the Office has no authority to create and maintain a registry for well-known trademarks (see (Turkey well-known trademark registry is again open for debate)
First-instance intellectual property courts and regional courts of appeals adopted this decision immediately and changed their practice, while the…
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