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Insights

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

Victory for Red Bull: IBEX Figurative Mark Rejected on Appeal

Red Bull opposed registration of figurative mark IBEX based on figurative mark RED BULL Board found that there was likelihood of association/confusion Opposition was upheld for goods in Class 30 and Class 32 The Re-examination and Evaluation Board of the Turkish Patent and Trademark Office (TürkPatent) has found that the application for the figurative trademark IBEX was confusingly similar to the figurative trademark RED BULL and, therefore, could not be registered for… »

Letters of Consent Under the Turkish Industrial Property Code

Unlike many countries, Turkish trade mark law has had a rule since 1995 that a senior tradegistration or application identical or indistinguishably similar to a junior trade mark application can be raised as an absolute ground for refusal if the goods/services are also identical or of the same type. The Turkish Industrial Property Code (the IP Code), which entered into force on January 10 2017, softened this rule, and in cases where an applicant submits anotarised document to… »

Overview of the Law on Amendments to the Enforcement and Bankruptcy Law and Other Laws

The Law on Amendments to the Enforcement and Bankruptcy Law and Other Laws, which was published in the Official Gazette no. 30361 and entered into force on March 15, 2018 (“the Amendment Law”), amends particularly Enforcement and Bankruptcy Law and other laws such as Law on Collection Procedure of Public Receivables, Law on Notifications, Law on Fees, Law on Cooperatives, International Arbitration Law, Law on the Establishment, Duties and Jurisdiction of First Instance… »

Reform Introduces Requirement to Mediate Before an Employment Claim

New legislation came into force in January 2018 that will require employees to submit to mediation before commencing most employment-related claims. The Labor Courts Act No. 7036 (Act) aims to ease the judiciary’s workload and accelerate the judicial process in employment cases. The most significant changes include the following: Mandatory mediation is introduced for both employers and employees prior to initiating lawsuits.  There is a new obligation on courts to provide… »

Life Sciences Newsletter, March 2018

Advertising ban on contact lenses Dicle Doğan and Nehir Aydeniz, Gün+Partners The Turkish Medicines and Medical Devices Agency has announced that contact lenses are considered to be medical devices that cannot be advertised to the public. The Regulation on the Sales, Advertisement, and Promotion of Medical Devices dated 15 May 2014 states that advertising a medical device to the public is prohibited if that medical device has to be exclusively used or applied by a healthcare… »

Proposed Amendments to Automatic Enrolment in Private Pension Plan System

The Amendment Act of August 25 2016 introduced into Turkish law the automatic enrolment of employees in private pension plans. As a result, employees under the age of 45 must be enrolled in a private pension plan as part of a pension agreement between their employer and a pension company. These provisions entered into force on January 1 2017, but the regulation is being applied gradually depending on how many employees a company has. To date, employees of companies with at… »

Roundtable Meeting Report on “Invalidation of an EP by the National Court While the Opposition Procedures Continue Before the EPO”

FICPI-Turkey held its first roundtable meeting on the possibility of protecting a validated European Patent in Turkey (after being limited or amended by the EPO during the opposition process) where the EP case is invalidated by the national court prior to the conclusion of the opposition.The Board of Directors of FICPI-Turkey chose the above subject as the topic for the opening roundtable meeting in order to canvas fair solutions to the problem, in line with the legislation… »

Doors Now Open for ISTAC Arbitration in Public Procurement Agreement Disputes

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Arbitration analysis: Pelin Baysal and Bilge Kağan Çevik of Turkish law firm Gün + Partners discuss the availability of Istanbul Arbitration Centre (ISTAC) arbitration for the resolution of public procure-ment agreement disputes following a policy change instigated by the Turkish government.  ISTAC was established in the third quarter of 2015 as an independent and autonomous international arbitra-tion centre for resolving national and international commercial transactions in… »

Turkey’s Corruption Perceptions Index Ranking Falls Again

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Introduction On February 21 2018 Transparency International published the 2017 Corruption Perceptions Index, which reflects the public sector corruption perspective of non-governmental organisations and representatives of the business world on a scale from 0 (highly corrupt) to 100 (very clean).(1) New Zealand and Denmark ranked the highest, with respective scores of 89 and 88. Notably, since 2012, several countries have significantly improved their index score – including… »

Invalidity Attack Blocks Precautionary Injunction Demand

The Istanbul IP Court recently rejected a crucial precautionary injunction demand of a patent owner on the grounds that the demand required a full trial due to the pending invalidation action against the patent. The patent discloses the use of an active pharmaceutical ingredient for treating the conditions of a disease. In light of the drug’s summary of product characteristics, the literal infringement of the patent was inevitable and obvious. The main defence held that the… »

Patent Use and Compulsory Licences

New IP law abolished the provisions concerning the use requirement of patents and evidence on ailed in the Decree Law on the Protection of Patent Rights. Instead, IP law now mentions the use requirement within the provision on compulsory licences, as a consequence of non-use of a patent. Accordingly, a patent owner must use the patented invention. When assessing the use, market conditions and conditions under the control of the patent owner, as well as outside their control… »

Turkish Higher Board Takes Different Approaches to Same Device Element in Separate Decisions

The Re-examination and Evaluation Board (the ‘Higher Board’) of the Turkish Patent and Trademark Office has found that, in addition to the similarity of the word elements in the trademarks under comparison, the presence of a device element similar to the opponent’s trademark as actually used increased the likelihood of confusion. Facts On November 28 2016 and November 30 2016 two individuals applied to register the signs depicted below, both in Class 41. Following… »

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