Industrial Design Rights 2020: Turkey
Industrial Design Rights is a revised and updated third edition of a significant work first published in 2001 under the auspices of the Intellectual Property Committee of the International Bar Association. There have been considerable changes since the previous edition principally in the increasing adoption of the Hague Convention on designs all over the world and harmonization of industrial designs among the European Community countries. Industrial designs are particularly… »
Turkish Data Localization Rules in Effect for Social Media Companies
On Oct. 1, 2020, amendments to the Regulation of Internet Broadcasts and Prevention of Crimes Committed through Such Broadcasts (Law No. 5651), also known as the Social Media Law in Turkey, entered into force. The amendments define the term "social network provider," oblige them to appoint a local representative, set out procedures for content removal, request reports every six months, and require user data to be stored within Turkey. On Oct. 2, the Information and… »
Advertisement Board Imposed Sanctions due to False Health Claims in Advertising of Food Supplements
In its decision dated 14th of July 2020 the Advertisement Board imposed sanction against the advertisement of a food supplement branded “No Attack”. According to Advertisement Board the advertising of this food supplement by celebrities in Turkey as well as the producer itself incorporated false health claim. Hence the Advertisement Board ordered to cease the broadcast of the said advertisements in any media and imposed administrative monetary fine corresponding to TRL… »
ICTA’s Decision on Social Network Providers
Definition of "Social Network Provider" has been added to the Law numbered 5651 on the Regulation of Internet Broadcasts and Prevention of Crimes Committed through Such Broadcasts (“Internet Law”) with the amendments that entered into force as of October 01, 2020. Although the amendments have regulated main issues concerning social network providers, the details of their obligations and sanctions have been subject to discussions and required more clarification. Accordingly on… »
Turkish Court of Appeal Rules on Abuse of the Right to Sue
In a recent case concerning trade mark law, the Turkish Court of Appeal ruled that even in cases of bad faith on the part of the defendant, the claimant can face the principle of loss of right due to silence as well as the barrier of abuse of the right to sue. The decisions As some readers may be aware, two German companies, Speck Pumpen Verkaufsgesellschaft GmbH and Winter Pumpen GmbH, had a dispute over the SPECK trade mark. This trade mark conflict included some actions… »
COVID-19’s Impact on Compliance Issues and Internal & External Investigations
COVID-19 outbreak, which was announced to be a pandemic by the World Health Organization on 11 March 2020[1], had inevitable impacts on corporate compliance processes due to the evolving business and workplace practices. In parallel with the increase in remote working, along with the psychological and financial distress on individuals emerging from the crisis, many companies have come up against a changing landscape for fraud with a rising number of fraud cases, as well as… »
Court of Cassation's Latest Approach to Actions for Unquantified Amounts of Receivables
Introduction When the new Code of Civil Procedure was enacted in 2011, it introduced a new case type to Turkish litigation, enabling plaintiffs to file actions for unquantified amounts of receivables, the determination of which is left to the courts. When filing such actions, plaintiffs must: state the amount of determinable receivables as the minimum amount subject to the dispute; pay a case fee based on this amount; extend their claim to the amount calculated by the court;… »
COVID-19’s Impact on Contracts and Relation with Force Majeure
The following statements are intended to help clarify the current legal situation caused by COVID-19 in terms of contracts and are valid for contractual relations subject to Turkish law. If contracting parties choose a law other than Turkish law as the law to be applied to the contract, the following statements may not apply. In such cases, the matter would have to be interpreted according to the law under which the contractual relationship is governed. 1. What is Force… »
COVID-19 and Personal Data Protection
1. Can processing personal data for the purpose of protecting public health within the scope of the struggle and measures taken to prevent the Covid-19 epidemic and its risk be considered as an exception under the Personal Data Protection Law in Turkey? What are the legal reasons for data processing within this scope? Under Article 28 of the Law on the Protection of Personal Data No. 6698 ("Law No. 6698"), cases that may be exempted from the application of the Law are listed.… »
Effects of COVID-19 Pandemic on Grace Periods and Use Obligation Provided for Trademarks in Turkey
Effects of Covid-19 pandemic on trademarks’ use requirement has been discussed globally and it is also a hot topic in Turkey. In order to discuss its effects, the grace periods provided for trademarks in the Turkish Industrial Property Code (“the IPC”) and justified reasons for non-use will be explained first. After giving an outline of the precautions taken against the Covid-19 pandemic in Turkey, we will provide our comments on the matter. General Information Regarding the… »
Turkey’s New Data Storage and Transfer Requirements for Banks
Amendments to Turkish Banking Law No. 5411 in February 2020 introduced important provisions regarding how banks handle confidential customer data. Based on these provisions, the Banking Regulation and Supervision Agency introduced a secondary regulation that was finalized in March, the Regulation on Banks’ Information Technology and Electronic Banking Services. This regulation contains binding provisions related to data processing and transferring of bank… »
Restrictions on Dividend Distribution Extended to 31 December 2020
Within the scope of the fight against the Covid-19, the provisional article 13, which was added to the Turkish Commercial Code ("TCC") on April 16, 2020, brought some restrictions on the dividend distribution rights of equity companies until 30 September 2020 and the exemptions regarding the companies covered by the regulation, the procedures and principles in relation to the practice were determined by the Communiqué issued by the Ministry of Commerce ("Ministry") and… »