The Advertisement Board (“Board”) reviewed numerous advertisements containing claims related to the environment in accordance with the Regulation on Commercial Advertising and Unfair Commercial Practices (“Regulation”), as well as the Guideline on Advertisements Containing Environmental Claims. The Board’s evaluation provided practical guidance for interpretation of environmental claims’ compliance to law.
The Board examined the environmental claims in a cosmetic company’s…
»
Article 8 of the Regulation on Commercial Advertisement and Unfair Commercial Practices (“Regulation”) permits comparative advertisements under specific conditions. Subparagraph (a) of the paragraph 1 of the article requires that such advertisements “should not be misleading or deceptive”, while subparagraph (f) mandates that “claims based on objective, measurable, and numerical data must be substantiated by scientific tests, reports, or documents”. The Regulation also…
»
The Regulation on Broadcasting Services (“'Regulation”) was amended by the Radio and Television Supreme Council and these amendments were published in the Official Gazette No. 32575 on 13 June 2024. These recent amendments are particularly relevant for news programs and, in some cases, live broadcast programs. The amendments introduced the following new rules, which are also in concern with the content rating for television programs:
The Content Rating requirement is now…
»
In 2024, significant changes and developments occurred regarding the administrative sanctions of the Advertisement Board.
The Law No. 7529 on Amendments to the Consumer Protection Law and Certain Other Laws, published in the Official Gazette No. 32707 dated 30 October 2024, introduced significant changes as of the date of publication, particularly concerning the administrative fines imposed by the Advertisement Board and the reconciliation against administrative fines.
The…
»
The Patent and Trademark Office obtained the authority to revoke trademarks on 10 January 2024
Fourteen months later, the office published a regulation concerning the implementation of the administrative revocation of trademarks
A key novelty is that, in addition to the application fee, the requesting party must also pay an escrow fee
Background
The administrative revocation of trademarks was introduced with the entry into force of the Industrial Property Code No 6769 on…
»
With the entry into force of the Industrial Property Code no. 6769 (“IP Code”) on 10 January 2017, the administrative revocation of trade marks has been introduced into Turkish Trade Mark Law and revocation proceedings are entrusted to the Turkish Patent and Trade Mark Office (“the Office”) instead of Turkish Courts. However, the implementation of administrative revocation was postponed for 7 years, and during this transition period, revocation requests continued to be filed…
»
One of the areas where the impact of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies have been intensively discussed is trademark law; while the changes brought about by this technology make attempt to provide innovative and effective processes in terms of registration processes and determination of infringement, it also makes it necessary to re-evaluate the basic concepts of trademark law.
This year, as in previous years, the use of AI technologies by the authorities in relation…
»
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…
»
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…
»
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…
»
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…
»
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…
»
