In December 2014, The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (“OECD”) took an important initiative by publishing its very first Foreign Bribery Report. Examining 427 bribery cases, The Report revealed that only 17 out of 41 members of the OECD Anti-Bribery Convention concluded bribery investigations with court decisions over the past 15 years. Such a small number clearly presented the need for better enforcement of anti-corruption laws worldwide.
While such…
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Within the context of an invalidation action, the Ankara Third IP Court has held that the figurative trademark NEO CARE (depicted below), which covers goods in Class 5 of the Nice Classification, was confusingly similar to the trademark NEXCARE, which also covers goods in Class 5.
The court considers that the device element of the NEO CARE mark was not distinctive and that the main element of the mark was its word element.
Although this is not explicitly mentioned in the…
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The Law No. 6563 on the Regulation of Electronic Commerce (the “E-Commerce Law”) has recently been approved by the Grand National Assembly of Turkey and published in the Official Gazette on 05.11.2014. The E-Commerce Law will enter into force by 01.05.2015.
The E-Commerce Law has been enacted in parallel with the EU Directive on E-Commerce (2000/31/EC).
The major provisions to be underlined in the E-Commerce Law are related to commercial electronic communication. Currently…
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Introduction
A recent corruption case involving embezzlement, forgery and bribery by the chairman of a non-profit organisation provides an example of the new asset recovery practice that the Fifth Judicial Reform Package (February 21 2014) has introduced. During the criminal investigation and proceedings, the assets generated by the suspect’s crimes were confiscated successfully and in a timely manner. Further, the prosecutors attached importance to redeeming the value of the…
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Introduction
International arbitration and domestic arbitration are subject to different legislation under Turkish law. The main legislation regulating international arbitration is the International Arbitration Law numbered 4686, which is essentially based on the UNCITRAL Model Law. The Civil Procedural Law numbered 6100 regulates domestic arbitration and it is not applicable to international arbitration, unless stated otherwise in International Arbitration Law.
Turkey is a…
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Introduction The graft probe of December 2013, which involved bribery and corruption allegations against four ministers of state and their family members (for further details please see “Government rocked by waves of corruption”) was concluded at the beginning of 2015 with the dismissal of charges and the release of suspects, despite significant criticism and concerns. However, its impact continues to dominate the news agenda in Turkey, especially as the investigations have…
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