Turkish Court of Appeal Revisits The Assessment of Likelihood of Confusion in case of Weak Trademarks … Changing Its Approach
Legal context The Industrial Property Law No 6769 (this regulates all IP rights in a single code) came into force on 10 January 2017, and the legislation on trade marks in force at the time of the BUDA BENIM decision was Decree Law No 556 on the Protection of Trade Marks (the Decree Law), as amended in 2004, and its implementing provisions. Article 8 of the Decree Law governed relative grounds for refusal of trade mark registration. According to Article 8/1(b) of the Decree… »
Ankara District Court: Cancellation of Several Board Decisions May be Requested in Single Action
In a recent action before the Ankara Second IP Court (Merits No 2015/414 E, 2016/283 K), the applicant had requested the cancellation of four decisions rendered by the Turkish Patent and Trademark Office’s Re- Examination and Evaluation Board rejecting the registration of four trademark applications for the figurative marks PRIVAT KAFFEE, depicted below: The applications had been opposed by a third party based on their confusing similarity with the word mark PRIVAT and the… »
Article 138/3 of EPC Applies During Pending Proceedings
As Turkey is a member of EPC, any provision of the EPC has the power of national law and can be directly applicable for European patents validated in Turkey. However as is well known, the EPC does not have many provisions binding the national courts. One of them is Article 138/3 which gives the European patent owner the right to limit the patent in the event of an invalidation action and orders the national court to take the limited version of the patent as the basis of… »
Life Sciences Newsletter, March 2017
New decree on medicines pricing published Dicle Doğan and Bentley James Yaffe, Gun + Partners The new Decree on the Pricing of Pharmaceutical Products for Human Use was published in the Official Gazette on 24 February 2017 and came into effect on the same day. The new decree abolishes the former pricing decree dated 15 June 2015. In Turkey the reference price system is applied to determine pharmaceutical prices. The ex-factory price in Turkey is determined by taking into… »
Injection of Capital Advance as a Recovery Method For Technical Bankruptcy Under The Turkish Commercial Code
According to the company statistics published by the Turkish Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges (TOBB), a total of 63,709 companies were incorporated in Turkey provided that 4,523 of these companies were incorporated with foreign capital only in 2016. However, due to certain reasons such as incorporation of the companies with the minimum capital required by the law, many companies may fall in the technical bankruptcy situation soon after their establishment. Although… »
Draft Law on Labour Courts and Proposed Mandatory Mediation Phase
Introduction The Ministry of Justice recently prepared a new draft Law on Labour Courts and shared it with the relevant public institutions and organisations for review. The principle of employment cases is to conduct litigation in a timely manner. However, in practice, the labour courts’ heavy workload obstructs this principle and employment cases take a considerable amount of time. The draft law aims to ease the judiciary’s workload in this regard and accelerate the… »
Turkey Protects 3D Marks, Colours and Sounds
Turkey began this year with a new law regulating and effecting almost all intellectual property rights, unifying them into a single code. This Industrial Property Code number 6967 (“the IP Code”) came into force on 10 January 2017. The IP Code replaces the Decree Laws which regulated the protection of trademarks, patents, geographical indications and industrial designs. Turkey has a long tradition of protecting intellectual property rights and is signatory to almost all the… »
Turkey’s Long Road to Becoming an Oil and Gas Hub
Turkey is not a large producer of oil and natural gas resources. Its oil and gas production is minimal when compared to its hydrocarbon-rich neighbours such as Azerbaijan, Russia, Iraq, and Iran. Yet, it still has a specific advantage: it is located between these oil-rich countries and the highly industrialised and developed western economies, which are large oil and natural gas consumers. Currently, crude oil and natural gas are carried via land pipelines to Turkey from… »
Direct Applicability of European Patent Convention While Invalidation Actions Pending
Turkey became a signatory to the European Patent Convention (EPC) on November 1 2000. The enactment of the Law on Joining the European Patent Convention on the Grant of European Patents and Its Protocols (4054) brought the EPC provisions into force in Turkey. Accordingly, the EPC is directly applicable to European patents validated in Turkey. However, few of the EPC provisions bind the national courts. For example, Article 138/3 gives a European patent owner the right to… »
Banking Law Amendment Provides Relief to Bank Officers and Company Executives
Introduction On February 9 2017 Decree-Law 687 was enacted by the Council of Ministers (based on its powers under the state of emergency). Among other things, the decree-law amends Banking Law 5411 by introducing a sub-paragraph into Article 160, which regulates the crime of embezzlement committed by bank officers. The new provision (Article 160/4) stipulates: “Loan allocation or extension; allocation of additional loans; instalment, securing or restructuring of loans which… »
Patent and Utility Model Prosecution Under the New Industrial Property Law
The Industrial Property Law came in force on January 10 2017. It introduces new provisions to encourage filing national applications before the Turkish Patent and Trademark Office (TPTO) by setting out a standardised procedure which can be completed in a shorter time. The new law reduces the number of requirements for filing an application to make it easier to obtain a filing date. Under the new regime, a request for a patent or utility model which includes the applicant’s… »
Life Sciences Newsletter, February 2017
No educational material for patients shall be distributed Dicle Doğan and Nehir Aydeniz, Gün + Partners The “Regulation on Promotional Activities for Medicinal Products for Human Use” prohibits promotional activities that address the general public (Article 5). The Turkish Medicines and Medical Devices Agency has extended this provision to cover certain educational materials provided by the pharmaceutical industry to patients, which have been deemed to be a form of… »