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Insights

We share our knowledge and expertise to update our community and clients about legal developments in Turkey.

Discovery of Evidence Is Not Subject to Bolar Exemption

Discovery of evidence and actions for determination of evidence are separately regulated under the Civil Procedural Law. Discovery of evidence is a preliminary step taken before any action on the merits, and it only serves to discover and record the evidence that may be relevant to an ongoing or future action on the merits. It must be emphasised that unlike the US and UK systems, there is no full and frank disclosure procedure under Turkish civil law. In other words, the… »

Impact of EPO Opposition on National Actions

Since Turkey’s inclusion as a member of the EPC, a hot topic has been the enforcement or invalidity of Turkish validation of European Patent(s) (“EP”) while proceedings before the European Patent Office (the “EPO”) are pending. Once an EP is validated in Turkey, it becomes a national patent three months after its first granted decision by the Examination Board of the EPO. For EPs, the Turkish Patent and Trademark Office (the “TPMO”) acts only as a procedural agency. Thus, the… »

2nd Damages Judgment in the Pharma Sector for Unjust PI

In 2018, the Istanbul IP Court decided on a generic pharmaceutical company’s damages claim based on an unjust PI, in what appears to be the first decision of its kind by the Turkish IP Courts within the pharmaceutical sector. The dispute between an originator firm and a generic firm derived from an infringement claim. The Court had issued a PI, which was lifted after 13 months based on the findings of an expert’s report, which found that no infringement had been made. The… »

New Guidelines on Named Patient Programme

In Turkey, the law explicitly states that pharmaceuticals which have their safety and efficacy proven through sufficient scientific and clinical studies within the direction of existing treatment guides, and are granted market authorisation by the Turkish Medicines and Medical Devices Agency (“Agency”) must be supplied only by pharmacies. However, the Agency is also competent to determine the exceptional importation regimes. Named Patient Program (“NPP”) is one of the… »

EC Certificates' Status During Transition Period for Brexit

Dicle Doğan and Fatma Sevde Tan, Gun + Partners On 1 February 2020, the Presidential Circular No 2020/1 was published on the Official Gazette No 31026 on the transition period for the UK's exit from the EU. The circular indicated that the UK will continue to be subject to EU law until 31 December 2020. Upon the publication of the Circular, the Turkish Medicines and Medical Devices Agency published an announcement (Turkish language) about the effects of this transition period… »

Consultation on New Draft Regulation on Promotion of Medical Devices

Dicle Doğan and Fatma Sevde Tan, Gun + Partners On 28 January 2020, the Turkish Medicines and Medical Devices Agency published a draft Regulation on the Sale, Advertisement and Promotion of Medical Devices (Turkish language) which will amend some of the existing provisions of the regulatory framework and introduce new rules. The most significant amendments are related to restrictions of medical device sales and advertising activities. The medical devices described in either… »

DERBY Case: Court of Appeal Overturns Lowercourt Decisions in Controversial Ruling

In opposition proceedings, the Court of Appeal has found that there was copyright infringement since the opponent’s logo had been copied in the mark applied for The well-known status of the earlier mark also served as a basis for the decision Arguably, the court correctly found that the applicant’s trademark should not be registered, but erred in its reasoning Background The owner of the DERBY trademark, registered and well known for razor blades, opposed an application for… »

Turkish Appeal Court Rules in Cow Trade Mark Case

In a case concerning trade mark and copyright law, the Turkish Court of Appeal has ruled that the use of a figure intensively cannot prevent the use of similar figures, as long as they are not identical. Background A recent decision of the Court of Appeal concerned an application to register a trade mark (shown right) in classes 29 and 43. The word elements in this application can be considered of low distinctiveness: ET means “meat” in Turkish, and so is descriptive for… »

Unfair Approach of Turkish IP Courts while Assessing “Bolar Exemption”

The article 85(3) (c) of the Industrial Property Law, which excludes the marketing authorization application from the scope of the patent right, is interpreted by the IP courts against the patent holder in a disproportionate way. The exemption here is the procedures that generic companies required to perform before the Ministry of Health in order to obtain a marketing authorization. Thus, for example, it enables the generic pharmaceutical company that applied for marketing… »

Changes to Minimum Wage, Severance Payments and Administrative Fines in 2020

Minimum wage Severance payments Administrative fines At the beginning of each year, the minimum wage, severance payments and administrative fines prescribed by the Labour Act are revised. On 1 January 2020 the changes for 2020 came into effect. Minimum wage In 2019 the monthly minimum wage rate was TL2,558.40 (gross). As of 1 January 2020, this has increased to TL2,943.00 (gross). The new rate applies from 1 January 2020 to 31 December 2020. The minimum wage applies to all… »

Notes from the 2019 Corruption Perceptions Index for Turkey

On 23 January 2020, Transparency International announced the much-awaited results of the 2019 Corruption Perceptions Index (the “CPI 2019”), which reflects the perception of country experts, non-governmental organisations and representatives of the business world of corruption in public sector. The CPI 2019 scores 180 countries and territories on a scale from 0 (highly corrupt) to 100 (very clean). The results, unfortunately, did not come as too much of a surprise for Turkey… »

Supreme Court Revokes Its Decision on Service Date of Electronic Notifications

Introduction As of 1 January 2019, the scope of electronic notification was expanded to include several institutions, including all public institutions and organisations, lawyers, notaries, experts and mediators following amendments to the Notification Law (7201). The Post and Telegraph Organisation has been assigned the operation of electronic notification transactions through the National Electronic Notification System. Further, the Regulation on Notification via Electronic… »

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