An Appetite for the Uncertain
Upon confirmation of International Atomic Energy Agency that Iran has completed the necessary preparatory to start the implementation of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action on January 16, 2016, both the US and the EU announced that certain economic and financial sanctions have been lifted. However, it should worth noting that there are still several sanctions directly applicable to US companies and enterprises which prevent them from benefiting from the lifted nuclear… »
Turkey Welcomes the Long Awaited Data Protection Law
The Law introduces an obligation to register and fines up to €300,000. Begüm Yavuzdoğan Okumuş examines Turkey’s new data protection law. For many years, Turkey has lacked separate legislation on the issue of data protection. Previous draft laws that have been sent to the Turkish Parliament were either returned to the proposing committee or not even discussed before the Grand Assembly as Parliament was being dissolved before a general election. However, following the recent… »
Procedures and Strategies for Pharmaceutical Brands
Pharmaceutical trademarks, like all other trademarks, are governed by Decree-Law 556 on the Protection of Trademarks. Before filing a trademark application, an availability search for the phrase to be filed should be conducted in the official database of the Turkish Patent Institute (TPI) to eliminate or reduce the risk of refusal or infringement. Selection, clearance and registration Relevant national and international regulatory bodies and requirements Pharmaceutical… »
Draft Industrial Property (Rights) Law Includes Compulsory Licence Provisions
On May 5 2016 the draft Industrial Property (Rights) Law passed the Ministry of Science, Industry and Technology commissions with minor amendments. One of the most debated issues was the application of the doctrine of international exhaustion of IP rights to all IP rights (for further details please see “Turkey poised to adopt doctrine of international exhaustion”). Another hotly debated issue covered in the draft law is the inclusion of compulsory licensing provisions in the… »
Draft IP Code Before The Turkish Parliament
Two decades after Turkey began adopting some EU-style IP legislation, the country is on the cusp of passing a new IP law. Guldeniz Dogan Alkan and Selin Sinem Erciyas examine the proposals. Twenty years ago Turkey was in the process of becoming a part of the European Union-Turkey Customs Union and one of its responsibilities was to adapt its national intellectual property law to EU legislation. For that purpose, Turkey rapidly constituted decree laws relating to IP rights in… »
Turkey Poised To Adopt Doctrine Of International Exhaustion
The Industrial Commission of the Turkish Grand National Assembly has approved the draft Industrial Property (Rights) Law, meaning that Turkey is poised to introduce the doctrine of international exhaustion of IP rights. This move is intended to address concerns regarding the ambiguous implementation of the doctrine, as well as its confusing interpretation by the courts and in literature, which allows the free parallel import and export of goods in and out of… »
Data Protection Issues in Turkey
In April 2016, Turkey faced one of the biggest data breaches ever recorded, where it was claimed that the personal data of almost 50 million Turkish citizens was leaked online. That breach is currently being investigated by the prosecuting officer, and although officials claim that the data leak only contains data from 2009 and reveals no new records beyond that time – it is still accepted as a colossal data breach.In the meantime, the long awaited Data Protection Law (the… »
Patents Institute Accepts Right to Stage Name as Sole Ground for Refusal
Facts In the first of two recent Turkish Patent Institute (TPI) decisions, the applicant filed a trademark application for the phrase ‘lana del rey’, seeking registration in Classes 25 and 35. The opponent – who had been using this phrase as her stage name for years and had become a world-renowned singer and songwriter under that name, and also had trademark registrations abroad for this phrase – filed an opposition against the application. The opposition was based on: • the… »
Draft Intellectual Property Law in Turkey
The Turkish Parliament took the draft IP Law into its program on 6 April 2016 and plans to enact it in mid 2016. The draft law is promising as it mainly fulfils the aim to harmonize the national law with EU law and removes discrepancies between national law and international agreements of Turkey. On the other hand it appears that the legislator focused on the must provisions and refrained from ruling on any area more than necessary. The amendments brought to IP law are… »
New Data Protection Law and Its Effect on Use of Health Data
Introduction On April 7 2016 the long-awaited Law on the Protection of Personal Data (the Data Protection Law) was published in the Official Gazette. While many of the Data Protection Law’s provisions came into effect on publication, the implementation of a few important provisions has been postponed until six months after the publication date. The Data Protection Law provides the framework for a central data protection regime, which Turkey previously lacked, and clarifies… »
Turkey Merges Previous IP Related Decree-Laws into a Single Code
The Turkish Patent Institute (TPI) shared die new Draft Industrial Property Code (the Draft Code) with the public at the end of February, collected remarks of the relevant stakeholders on it and the Draft Code has been sent onto the Parliament recently. The Draft Code was introduced to the Turkish domestic law on 24 February 2016. The TPI shared it and allowed the stakeholders to convey their opinions within ten days.The period of consultation finished on 4 March 2016, there… »
General Assembly Resolution with Forged Signature Declared Void
Introduction Pursuant to Article 445 of the Commercial Code (6102/2011), an invalidation action can be filed against general assembly resolutions that conflict with the law, articles of association – in particular, good-faith principles within three months from the date of the resolution. The three-month period does not apply if there is a nullity decision in question. The previous Commercial Code regulated only invalidation cases, whereas general provisions applied to… »