Employment and Employee Benefits 2022 in Turkey
1. Do the main laws that regulate the employment relationship apply to: Foreign nationals working in your jurisdiction? Nationals of your jurisdiction working abroad? Laws Applicable to Foreign Nationals Under Article 27 of the Act on Private International and Procedural Law No. 5718, employment contracts with a foreign element are subject to the governing law chosen by the parties, without prejudice to the minimum protection that employees are… »
Guidelines on Use of Cookies in Turkey
The Guidelines on Use of Cookies (the “Guidelines”) was published by the Personal Data Protection Authority (the “Authority”) on June 20, 2022 which outlines good practice examples to guide data controllers. The Guidelines explain principles on use of cookies for data controllers to process data on legal grounds, use appropriate privacy notices and obtain explicit consent from data subject legally. Cookie Types Cookies are defined as low-sized, rich-format texts that allow… »
The Dangers of Basing Preliminary Injunctions on Determination of Evidence
Determination of evidence, which is one of the most important temporary legal protection measures regulated in our law, is an institution that ensures the protection of evidence that will assist the proving of the matter. Considering that the adversarial trial process is adopted in our civil procedure law, the significance of the right holder being able to have the evidence which will help them prove their rightness effectively determined, is clear. However, as will be… »
Turkish Court of Cassation’s Recent Decision on Search and Seizure Orders is Strengthens the IP Owners’ Position
In Turkey, following the criminal complaint route against counterfeits is very effective, yet several criminal courts are becoming rather hesitant to grant search & seizure warrants. The most problematic courthouse in this respect has been Istanbul Courthouse for quite some time and this courthouse is very important as its jurisdiction covers very significant locations for brand owners, such as Grand Bazaar, Taksim, Tahtakale etc.. The criminal courts of Istanbul… »
Amendment on the Decision on Pricing of Medicinal Products for Human Use
The Presidential Decree numbered 6365 Amending the Decision on Pricing of Medicinal Products For Human Use (“Decision”) was published in the Official Gazette numbered 32008 on 9 November 2022. The following paragraph has been added to Article 2 of the Decision: “Discount practices that cause temporary price changes in country/countries where the product is offered for sale, special practices related to product classification and taxation practices shall not be taken into… »
Misbehaviors of Employees, Which Do Not Reach The Level of Bullying Yet Disrupt the Workplace Peace, as Valid Grounds For Termination
According to article 25(2)(d) of the Turkish Labour Act,(1) an employee bullying their employer, one of their family members or another employee constitutes a just cause for termination. Several precedents of the Court of Cassation state that "bullying" refers to threats, insults or battery. That being the case, employers often wonder whether other acts of misbehaviour by employees, which do not technically qualify as bullying yet disrupt workplace peace, may constitute… »
A First for Turkey as Court Decides Preliminary Injunctions Can Apply to NFTs
Despite legal uncertainties, court decisions in various jurisdictions have grasped with the issues of non-fungible tokens (NFTs), digital tokens that cannot be exchanged or replaced and may represent a tangible object in the real world. For the first time, a court in Turkey rendered a preliminary injunction (PI) regarding NFTs on June 21, 2022. In the dispute filed before the Istanbul Third Civil Intellectual Property Court (court), heirs of Cem Karaca, who was an artist… »
Patent and Trademark Office Rejects Applications Based on Interdependence Principle
The ‘interdependence principle’ was clearly established by the CJEU in Canon In two recent cases, the Patent and Trademark Office explicitly mentioned and set out the conditions for the application of the interdependence principle In one of the cases, the Office also found that an application including the dominant element ‘camelbak’ could not have been filed in good faith The Interdependence Principle For an application to be rejected under Article 6/1 of the Turkish… »
Patents, Trade Marks, Copyright and Designs 2022 in Turkey
Provide a brief definition of a patent, the key legal requirements to obtain it and the law that applies. A patent is an industrial property right that gives the patent owner the right to prevent third parties from certain activities such as producing, using, selling, or importing the product or process that is the subject of the invention for a 20-year period. The applicant must prove the following to obtain a patent: Novelty. Inventive step. Industrial… »
IP in Business Transactions 2022 in Turkey
1. On what basis can the main IPRs be assigned? What formalities apply? Basis for patent assignment. Under the Intellectual Property Law No. 6769 (IP Law), a patent can be assigned in whole. A patent cannot be assigned in part. Formalities for patent assignment. Under the IP Law, a patent assignment must be in writing and signed by both parties and notarised before a notary public. Registration of a patent assignment with the Turkish Patent and Trademark Office (TPTO) is… »
Decision on Pricing of Human Medicinal Products Amended
The Presidency published a Decision (Turkish language) numbered 6207 amending the Decision on Pricing of Human Medicinal Products (Decision) in the Official Gazette numbered 31928 and dated 12 October 2022. The Decision amends the provision regarding profit rates and determined higher brackets for the calculation of pharmacist profit which is derived from the wholesaler price. The new brackets are as follows: The pharmacist profit is 28% of the wholesaler price when the… »
Debate on well-known Trademark Registry Expected to be Resolved Soon
The PTO is determined to maintain its well-known trademark registry, even though the Court of Cassation held that it has no authority to do so Rights owners may continue to file applications for the recognition and recordation of their trademarks as well knownbefore the PTO New regulation is expected to give the PTO explicit authority to keep the well-known trademark registry Background In 2020 the Court of Cassation concluded that the Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) had… »