Proper Reasons for Non-use in Turkey
Mutlu Yıldırım Köse provides a guest post for Class 46 on a recent Court of Appeal ruling in Turkey The Court of Appeal (COA) has approved a decision of a first instance court which ruled that the regulatory restriction on the sale of cocktail beverages containing distilled alcohols constitutes a proper reason for non-use of a trade mark in Turkey. Bacardi & Company Limited filed a trade mark infringement and unfair competition action against a Turkish company using the… »
Disciplinary Imprisonment in Opposition to Interim Injunction was Annulled
It was regulated in Article 398 of the Code of Civil Procedure that persons who do not comply with the order for enforcement of interim injunctions or who violate the decision of the injunction shall be punished with disciplinary imprisonment of one month to six months. As a result of the application made to Court by the Istanbul 1st Intellectual and Industrial Property Court for the annulment of the mentioned article, the Constitutional Court, in its decision with the merit… »
Supreme Court Rules Inappropriately Worded Emails are Valid Reason for Termination
The Supreme Court, as per its established precedent, recently found that the failure of employees to use appropriate language in their written workplace correspondence with superiors or colleagues constitutes a valid reason for termination. Background The Supreme Court has adopted a balanced approach between the principle of termination as last resort and the employer’s management rights in reinstatement actions filed by employees laid off by their employers due to workplace… »
Damages Awards in IP Right Infringement Cases
IP right owners suffer huge damages in some IP rights infringement cases as they invest substantial amounts in their IP rights. Therefore, compensation claims are of vital importance for them in order to recover their damages, to protect their reputation and create a deterrent impact on the infringing party. In parallel with the previous regulations, the Industrial Property Code no. 6769 (“IP Code”) also provides highly advantageous provisions for compensation actions. In… »
Key Developments and Predictions for Trademark Law in Turkey – 2019
It has now been over two years since the Industrial Property Code No. 6769 (“the IP Code”) came into force. While the interpretation and implementation of most of the issues in relation to the key changes introduced by the IP Code have been addressed by the Turkish Patent and Trademark Office (“TÜRKPATENT” or “the Office”), there are still some outstanding issues requiring interpretation by the Court of Appeals. The primary legislative development in trademark law in 2018… »
New Guidelines for Off-label Use of Drugs Published
Dicle Doğan and Fatma Sevde Tan, Gun + Partners On 8 February 2019, the Turkish Medicines and Medical Devices Agency published new Guidelines for the Off-Label Use of Drugs (Turkish language) and abrogated the previous version of the Guidelines, dated 18 July 2014. The new Guidelines entered into force upon publication. The Guidelines reference a new system for applications for the off-label use of drugs. The system is named as the “System on Administration of Unauthorized… »
New 2019 Euro FX Rate for Drug Prices for 2019
Özge Atılgan Karakulak and Fatma Sevde Tan, Gun + Partners The Euro exchange rate used for approval of medicine prices in Turkey is determined as per the Decision on Pricing of Human Medicinal Products. The Decision which was published in the Official Gazette numbered 29989, dated 24 February 2017, set the Euro exchange rate as 70% of the average Euro value of the previous year. However, on 14 February 2019, an amendment (Turkish language) was published in the Official… »
Changes to Minimum Wage, Severance Payments and Administrative Fines in 2019
Minimum wage, severance payments and administrative fines prescribed by the Labour Act are revised at the beginning of each calendar year. Minimum wage The minimum wage rate for 2018 was TL2,029.50 (gross) per month. As of 1 January 2019, this has increased to TL2,558.40 (gross) per month. The new rate applies from 1 January 2019 to 31 December 2019. Minimum wage applies to all employees, regardless of age, industry and experience. The only exceptions are the coal and lignite… »
Employee Incentives in Turkey
1. What kinds of incentive plan are most commonly offered and to whom? The most prevalent type of monetary incentive plan in Turkey is bonus paid monthly or annually. For most of the employees this bonus may be calculated as sales commission calculated upon good or services sold to customer or the employees may receive project bonuses from the work performed with their team. The highest ranked employees may also benefit from profit sharing. Some of the companies also… »
Is a Public Interest Compulsory Licence on the Way?
Compulsory licensing (CL) has been one of the most important concepts in the new Turkish IP Law which entered into force in 2017. Although the concept is not new, the new Article 129, among others, provides the following possible conditions for granting a CL: (i) failure to work or insufficient working that does not meet the national market needs before the expiration of a period of four years from the date of filing of the patent application or three years from the date of… »
Corruption Perceptions Index 2018 Has Been Released
Introduction Transparency International announced the results of the 2018 Corruption Perceptions Index (the “2018 Index”) on January 29, 2019. As known, this study has been carried out and published by Transparency International since 1995, and reflects the public sector corruption perspective of experts, non-governmental organisations and representatives of the business world on a scale from 0 (highly corrupt) to 100 (very clean). When compared to the 2017 results, Turkey… »
Minister of Health Announces That Prices of Medicines Will Be Raised by 26,4% from 19 February 2019
The Euro exchange rate used for approval of medicine prices in Turkey is determined as per the Decision on Pricing of Human Medicinal Products (“Decision”). The Euro exchange rate which has long been fixed to TRY 1.9595 and not updated according to the current rate was determined as 70% of the average Euro value of the previous year by the new Decision which was published on 24 February 2017. Accordingly, the Price Evaluation Commission would gather within the first 45 days… »