Insights
International Health Services Incorporated Company Established
Dicle Doğan and Fatma Sevde Tan, Gun + Partners On 3 August 2018, an amendment (Turkish language) was made in the Decree Law on Some Regulations in the Field of Health, establishing the International Health Services Incorporated Company (USHAŞ). The purpose of the company is to facilitate health tourism in Turkey. All shares of USHAŞ shall be owned by Ministry of Treasury and Finance. The duties of USHAŞ are to: Promote the services offered in Turkey in the field of… »
Telecoms and Media 2018 in Turkey
1. Regulatory and institutional structure Summarise the regulatory framework for the communications sector. Do any foreign ownership restrictions apply to communications services?The main legislation governing the communications sector is the Electronic Communications Law No. 5809 and dated 5 November 2008 (the ECL). The ECL provides the main principles regarding the authorisation of the operators, their obligations and the powers granted to the Information and Communication… »
Pharmaceutical Advertising 2018 in Turkey
General – Medicinal Products 1.1 What laws and codes of practice govern the advertising of medicinal products in your jurisdiction? In Turkey, advertising of medicines is governed by the Pharmaceutical and Medical Preparation Law No. 1262 (the Law No. 1262) and the Regulation on Promotional Activities of Medicinal Products for Human Use (the Promotion Regulation), which is based on the former. The Promotion Regulation is published on July 3, 2015 by replacing the… »
Key Developments and Predictions for Trademark Law in Turkey
The Industrial Property Code No. 6769 (“the IP Code”) which came into force on 10 January 2017 has been widely welcomed by brand owners as their rights have now been sealed through the introduction of this new Code. The primary reason for the enactment of the new Code was the cancellation of various articles of the former Decree-laws on IP rights by the Constitutional Court on the grounds of Article 91 of the Constitution, which prohibits regulation of the property rights by… »
Commercial Cases Worth Less than TL100,000 now Subject to Simplified Procedure
Under Turkish law, there are two types of procedure in civil proceedings. Written procedure is the main and most common type, whereas the simple procedure, as the name suggests, is a simplified and expedited process. There are two rounds of written submission in written procedure (ie, pleading and response and rebuttal and rejoinder). However, in the simplified procedure, only pleading and response petitions can be filed by the parties. In principle, commercial cases are… »
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… »
Amendments to the Law on Movable Pledge in Commercial Transactions Numbered 6750
In accordance with the Law on the Amendment of Certain Laws for the Improvement of the Investment Environment numbered 7099 which was published in the Official Gazette on 10 March 2018 (“Law”), along with the regulations made in the Turkish Commercial Code, Tax Procedural Law, Social Security and General Health Insurance Law, Law on Municipal Revenues, Customs Law, there have been several changes made in the Law on Movable Pledge in Commercial Transactions numbered 6750with… »
Analysing Turkey’s Evolving Trade Mark Landscape
It has now been over a year since the entry into force of the long-awaited Industrial Property Code (the IP Code) in January 2017. While the IP Code replaced the decree-laws pertaining to the protection of trade marks, patents, geographical indications and industrial designs, by uniting them into a single code, it also introduced new provisions. This article aims to summarise the new provisions in general and analyse the issues surrounding the implementation of the major new… »
New Developments in Combat Against Smuggled counterfeit Products
The smuggling police and customs enforcement officers take ex-officio action against smuggling offenses as per Anti-Smuggling Law no.5607, the basic purpose of which is fighting customs tax evasions. All smuggled products seized by such enforcement bodies are delivered to customs liquidation directorates for storage and sale. In contrast, trade mark infringement is set forth in Industrial Property Law no.6769 as an offense being subject to a “criminal complaint” to be filed… »
Competition Board Decision on Price Discrimination
The Competition Board decided not to initiate an investigation concerning the Complaint of Emek Ecza Deposu for Abuse of Dominance by 15 Pharmaceutical Companies through Price Discrimination Update: The Competition Board concluded the preliminary investigation initiated after annulment of its decision dated 21.04.2011 and numbered 11-25 / 470-141 by the 13th Chamber of Council of State and decided that the companies subject of the complaint did not conducted any abusive… »
Use Requirements, Evidence of Use and Compulsory Licences
The new Industrial Property Law entered into force on January 10 2017. It repealed and replaced decree-laws pertaining, among other things, to the protection of patent rights. Decree-laws Before the new law, decree-laws had set out clear provisions regarding use requirements, whereby patentees were obliged to use their patents within three years of its publication in the relevant bulletin. They had also set out clear provisions regarding evidence of use, whereby patentees… »
Short Marks Composed of Four Letters With Different Last Two Consonants Held to be Confusingly Similar
The Ritz Hotel Limited & The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company, LLC v Sami Yorulmaz, 27.09.2016, 2016-M-7845 (finalized early 2017). Re-Examination and Evaluation Board of the Turkish Patent and Trade Mark Office In this landmark decision, the Re-Examination and Evaluation Board (‘Board’) of the Turkish Patent and Trade Mark Office (‘Office’) concluded that, in some cases, one of the elements creating the mark can have a greater effect on average consumers. Thus these elements… »