General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) has been one of the most important regulations for the companies in Europe and also some of the companies in other countries. However, Europe is not the only jurisdiction with a privacy regulation. Various other countries like Turkey, Japan, South Korea, and Australia have privacy laws. A company located in Europe has to take into account the provisions of both the GDPR and the privacy regulations of other countries where it does…
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Dicle Doğan and Fatma Sevde Tan, Gun + Partners
On 16 November 2019, a Regulation amending the Regulation on Promotional Activities of Human Medicinal Products (Turkish language) was published in the Official Gazette (numbered 30950). The amendment extends the period during which product promotion representatives can obtain their certificate of competency.
Pursuant to the Regulation on Promotional Activities of Human Medicinal Products, product promotion representatives for…
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WIPO has received a communication from Turkey withdrawing its declaration under Article 14(5) of the Madrid Protocol
As of 18 October 2019, Turkey can be the subject of a subsequent designation in respect of international registrations effected before 1 January 1999
It is believed that this development may result only in a slight increase in the number of designations under the Madrid Protocol
Turkey joined the Madrid Protocol on 1 January 1999. Since then, it has been…
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Upon enactment of the new IP Code, which abolished Trademark Decree Law no. 556, the precedent of the Court of Appeals ruling no trademark infringement due to use of a registered right changed. The Istanbul District Court of Appeals affirmed this approach in its decisions.
The new IP Code no. 6769 introduced an important change to Turkish trademark law with its article 155 ruling that “a trademark, patent or industrial design holder cannot rely on its registered right as a…
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Insurance sector, with its non-penetrated potential, has long been considered as one of the prospective vanguards of the economy. The latest developments signify these high hopes held for the insurance market and its contributions.
Turkish government has an objective to be the 10th biggest economy in the world by 2023, aiming to generate US$2 trillion worth of gross national product.[1] In line with this objective, the government has the insurance sector, among others, in its…
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The first step has been taken towards the judicial reform, which has become a hot topic recently. With the Law No. 7188 on Making Amendments to the Code of Criminal Procedure and Certain Laws (“Law No. 7188”) dated 17 October 2019, which took effect with its promulgation in the Official Gazette No. 30928 of 24 October 2019; critical amendments have been made particularly with regards to the criminal procedure. Among these amendments, the ones which are considered to affect…
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Turkish Patent and Trademark Office (“the Office”) published The New Trademark Examination Guideline (“Guideline”) on September 30, 2019. The guideline defines the criteria regarding the examination of trademark applications on absolute grounds within the scope of Industrial Property Code (“the IP Code”) that came into force in 2017.
The Guideline aims to update the previous guideline which was in force since 2011, clarify the principles of absolute grounds for refusal that…
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The Trademark and Patent Offi ce refused to register Škoda Auto AS’ mark SUEDIA for automobiles on absolute grounds
The Re-examination and Evaluation Board found that, although the term ‘Suedia’ means ‘Sweden’ in Romanian, such meaning would not be readily perceived by the average Turkish consumer
This decision adopts a broader interpretation of distinctiveness for marks that include a geographical name in a language that is not widely known to the relevant public
A recent…
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On 30 September 2019 the Patent and Trademark O ce announced the issuance of new guidelines for the examination of trademark applications
The new guidelines are limited to examination on absolute grounds
The guidelines include a number of examples from Turkish and EU decisions
Following the entry into force of the Turkish Industrial Property Code, which replaced the relevant decree laws, on 10 January 2017, new guidelines had long been needed and awaited. The Turkish Patent…
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The Re-examination and Evaluation Board of TURKPATENT has acknowledged that EBAY should be recorded as a well-known trademark in Turkey
The board took into account the status of the mark around the world and in Turkey, with a focus on the realities of the Turkish marketplace
It is important to appeal unfavourable first-instance decisions to take advantage of the REEB examiners’ experience and broad understanding of trademarks
Background
Well-known status provides extensive…
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A Turkish company active in the automotive sector filed a patent infringement action against a German global automotive company. The Turkish company alleged that a system used in the cars of the German company was infringing its non-examined patent granted by the Turkish Patent and Trademark Office (‘TPTO’). As a counter-attack, the German company and its Turkish authorized dealer filed an invalidation action against the non-examined patent in question before the same Court.…
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Raising capital through crowdfunding for business ventures has been an applied method for financing start-ups and business projects in Turkey since the recent change on the Capital Markets Code numbered 6362 in 2017 which recognized crowdfunding. Having regulated the basic norms and rules surrounding crowdfunding, the detailed and more rigorous norms were released by Capital Markets Board in the form of a Communique on 3 October 2019, titled Communique on Share-based…
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