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Thought Leadership

COVID-19 HUB

COVID-19 HUB

Our COVID-19 HUB is designed to keep our stakeholders updated and help them understand the legal effects of COVID-19 outbreak, and take steps to maintain their businesses in Turkey.

Trademark Law in Turkey Key Developments and Predictions - 2021

Trademark Law in Turkey Key Developments and Predictions - 2021

We have compiled our articles on various topics of trademark law that we deem important for brand owners, which we have developed over the course of the last year.

Patent Law in Turkey Key Developments and Predictions - 2021

Patent Law in Turkey Key Developments and Predictions - 2021

We focus on the key aspects of patent litigation in Turkey, and the most important or challenging issues in Turkish Patent Law.

Life Sciences Law in Turkey Key Developments and Predictions - 2021

Life Sciences Law in Turkey Key Developments and Predictions - 2021

We focus on the key aspects of life sciences in Turkey, the most important and challenging issues in Turkey’s life sciences industry.

Data Protection and Privacy Law in Turkey Key Developments and Predictions 2021

Data Protection and Privacy Law in Turkey Key Developments and Predictions 2021

We focus on the key aspects of data privacy matters and developments in Turkey, and the most important or challenging issues regarding the same.

Copyright Law in Turkey Key Development and Predictions 2021

Copyright Law in Turkey Key Development and Predictions 2021

In the report, we outline seven controversial issues that we often encounter in Turkish copyright Law.

Commercial Dispute Resolution Under Turkish Law Rules, Developments and Insights - 2020

Commercial Dispute Resolution Under Turkish Law Rules, Developments and Insights - 2020

We focus on the four main topics of commercial dispute resolution under Turkish law, and the most important and challenging issues in commercial dispute resolution under Turkish law.

Media and Advertising Law in Turkey Key Developments and Predictions - 2020

Media and Advertising Law in Turkey Key Developments and Predictions - 2020

We focus on the key aspects of media and advertising law in Turkey, and the most important or challenging issues in Turkish media and advertising Law.

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Monthly Newsletters

September 2021

September 2021

We are pleased to publish our monthly newsletters to update our community and clients about legal developments in Turkey.

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Impact of EPO Proceedings and EPC Provisions on National Actions

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IP Prosecution, Patent and Utility Models and Intellectual Property || Gün + Partners

Since Turkey’s inclusion as a member of the EPC, a hot topic has been the enforcement or invalidity of Turkish validation of European Patent(s) (“EP”) while proceedings before the European Patent Office (the “EPO”) are pending. Once an EP is validated in Turkey, it becomes a national patent. For EPs, the Turkish Patent and Trademark Office (the “TPMO”) seems to have transferred its powers and duties to the European Patent Office; therefore, it functions as an institution that...»

Discovery of Evidence Requests and the Scope of Bolar Exemption

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IP Prosecution, Patent and Utility Models and Intellectual Property || Gün + Partners

Discovery of evidence requests are specially regulated under Civil Procedural Law No. 6100. Discovery of evidence serves the purpose of determining a fact that has not yet been examined in an ongoing action or a fact that will be put forward in a future action. It must be emphasised that unlike the US and UK systems, there is no full and frank disclosure procedure under Turkish civil law. In other words, the parties may decide, at their discretion, which documents they will o...»

Arbitration Proceedings Regarding Determination of Reasonable Amount for Employee’s Invention

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IP Prosecution, Patent and Utility Models and Intellectual Property || Gün + Partners

In 2020, an arbitration judgment was held in accordance with the ISTAC serial arbitration procedure regarding the compensation request for employee invention and, as far as it is known, this is the first and pilot file in which the Regulation on Employee Inventions, Inventions in Higher Education Institutions and Public Funded Projects, will determine the price tariff for employees’ inventions and the arbitration procedure to be followed in case of dispute. Within the scope o...»

Preliminary Injunction Granted to Prevent Indirect Use of Invention

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Intellectual Property, Patent and Utility Models and IP Prosecution || Gün + Partners

One of the most striking developments of 2020 is a preliminary injunction decision given as a result of the implementation of the provision, “Prevention of the Indirect Use of Invention,” regulated in Article 86 of the IPL. Although the expression “Indirect Use of Invention” is often confused with the concept of “Indirect Infringement of Patents,” in fact, indirect patent infringement is not clearly regulated in our law. Turkish IP Code numbered 6769 (“IP Code”) lists the act...»

Supply of Pharmaceutical Products from Abroad and Patent Rights

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Intellectual Property, IP Prosecution, Patent and Utility Models and Life Sciences || Özge Atılgan Karakulak

The supply of pharmaceutical products to Turkey via the named patient programme (the “NPP”) is one of the exceptional importation regimes for pharmaceutical products. Where a pharmaceutical product is not granted marketing authorisation in Turkey, or it is granted marketing authorisation but not found in the market, but patients need it, it can be supplied via this special route by physician request. The entities that are authorised to import pharmaceuticals within the scope ...»

Declaration of Use and Compulsory License

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Patent and Utility Models, IP Prosecution and Intellectual Property || Gün + Partners

The new IP Law (the “Law”) numbered 6769 abolished the provisions on “The use requirement of patents,” and “The evidence of use” of the Decree Law Pertaining to the Protection of Patent Rights. The Law now focuses on the requirements of use for patents within the provision of a Compulsory License. Accordingly, a patent owner must make use of the patented invention within three years following publication of its granted decision in the Official Bulletin (‘the Bulletin’), or wi...»

Does Likelihood of Confusion Exist Based on a Common Weak Element?

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Trademarks and Designs || Güldeniz Doğan Alkan and Ayşenur Çıtak Bozdağ

The Turkish Court of Cassation (‘CoC’) upheld lower court decisions which ruled in favour of cancelling the Turkish Patent and Trademark Office’s (‘Office’) Re-Examination and Evaluation Board’s (‘Higher Board’) decision for invalidation of the ‘Mazstar’ trademark on the basis of likelihood of confusion with the plaintiff’s trademarks bearing the common element ‘Star’. Dispute Background The defendant filed an application before the Office for ‘MAZSTAR’ in classes 29 and 30. ...»

Arbitration Procedures and Practice 2021 in Turkey

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Dispute Management || Pelin Baysal, Asena Aytuğ Keser and Bilge Kağan Çevik

1. How is commercial arbitration used and what are the recent trends? Use of commercial arbitration and recent trends In Turkey, arbitration traditionally evolved as a dispute resolution mechanism, which was used more frequently in large commercial disputes where a foreign party is involved and mostly when a legal counsel is involved in the preparation of the principal contract between the parties. For all other matters, particularly concerning disputes of smaller value, Turk...»

A Look at Brand Enforcement During the COVID-19 Pandemic

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Trademarks and Designs || Uğur Aktekin and Zeynep Seda Alhas

Turkey’s first official diagnosis of COVID-19 was announced on March 11 2020. Since then, the country has experienced lockdowns, quarantines, travel bans and limited access to public services at various levels, depending on the progress of the pandemic. There were months where the legal and administrative bodies’ effectiveness was inversely proportional with the curve of pandemic, which affected all governmental agencies. Incidentally, brand enforcement activities were also h...»

Constitutional Court’s Recent Decision Regarding Inspection on Employee E-mails

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Employment || Pelin Baysal, Beril Yayla Sapan and Kardelen Özden

Constitutional Court’s decision of 12 January 2021 concerning the application no. 2018/31036[1] discusses, once again, employer inspection on employees’ corporate e-mail accounts and the terminations relying on the collected correspondences, in scope of the right to protection of personal data and freedom of communication. In the said decision, the Constitutional Court found no violation as to the right to protection of personal data and freedom of communication, since the em...»

Compensation Claims Arising out of Distribution Agreements under Turkish Law

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Dispute Management and Corporate and M&A || Pelin Baysal, Cansu Akbıyıklı and Edanur Atlı

Introduction As a sui generis agreement under Turkish law, distribution agreement mainly contains the characteristics of a sales and purchase agreement; however, it also differs from the same since the distributor's role is not limited to simply purchasing the products from the supplier/principal and selling them to customers or end-users. Instead, in a distribution agreement, the distributor is incorporated into the distribution chain of the supplier with having the right an...»

List of Compassionate Use Programs Has Been Published

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Life Sciences || Dicle Doğan and Fatma Sevde Tan

Compassionate Use Programs are designed for patients who have a serious or urgent, life-threatening disease whose treatment has been unsuccessful with available medicinal products licensed by the Turkish Medicines and Medical Devices Agency (“Agency”) in Turkey and who cannot be included in the clinical trials on this subject. The Compassionate Use Program aims to provide the drug, which is not licensed in Turkey, but licensed or not in other countries, by the company that de...»