Insights
Developments About Corporate Sustainability in Türkiye
The principle of sustainability initially emerged as a corporate social responsibility notion under the management activities of companies and then, brought along the necessity for companies to act ethically and responsibly towards their stakeholders. The elements of environmental, social and economic sustainability are collectively at the core of corporate social responsibility and this concept is based on the responsibility of companies towards society. It is observed that… »
A New Regulation on the Sanction for Non-Attendance to Mandatory Mediation
The Constitutional Court’s decision dated 14 March 2024 and numbered 2023/160 E., 2023/160 E., 2024/77 K. annulled Article 18/A of the Law No. 6325 on Mediation in Civil Disputes (“Mediation Law”). The annulled provision imposed a sanction on parties causing the mediation to end due to their failure to attend the first mediation meeting without a valid excuse, holding them liable for all litigation costs and attorney fees, even if they were partially or fully justified in the… »
Evaluating Disparaging Practices against Competitors in the Pharmaceutical Sector: A Competition Law Perspective
Evaluating Disparaging Practices against Competitors in the Pharmaceutical Sector: A Competition Law Perspective The competition investigation initiated by the European Commission (the “Commission”) against Vifor Pharma on June 20, 2022, has attracted attention due to the fact that this is the first investigation in which the act of disparaging competitors will be considered as a violation of competition law alone. Competition investigations launched against pharmaceutical… »
International Update
The World Health Organization (WHO) gives pharmaceutical substances international non-proprietary names (INNs) so that each substance can be identified by a distinct name. However, pharmaceutical trade marks cannot be composed entirely of INNs. The rulings of the Court of Cassation (the CoC) indicate that while pharmaceutical trade marks can be derived from INNs, they cannot consist solely of these names. For instance, an action was filed claiming that the defendant’s trade… »
Time Extension Granted: August 7, 2024 - Allocation of Domain Names in Structure of “a.tr”
In addition to domain names such as "com.tr" and "org.tr", which are already being allocated in Türkiye, allocation of domain names in the structure of "a.tr" has also become possible as of September 14, 2023. Domain names in the structure of “a.tr” do not include extensions for generic top-level domains (gTLD) such as ".com", ".net", ".org", etc. but have a direct country code extension of ".tr". The initial allocation of these domain names is carried out by the Information… »
Data Controllers and Processors’ Turn to Take Actions Now!
The Regulation on Procedures and Principles Regarding the Cross-border Transfer of Personal Data (the “Regulation”) is published in the Official Gazette on 10 July 2024. Additionally, the Personal Data Protection Board (the “Board”) announced the standard contract texts, binding corporate rules application forms and supplementary guidelines about essential issues required to be covered by binding corporate rules. Except for cross-border transfers that are irregular, occur on… »
Crypto Asset Regulations Came Into Force
The need for legal regulation regarding crypto assets has been discussed for a considerable time. With the amendments made by Law no. 7518 (the “Law”) introduced to the Law on Capital Markets no. 6362, published in the Official Gazette numbered 32590 dated July 2, 2024, a comprehensive legal basis for crypto assets has been established within the Turkish legal framework for the first time. The Law has authorized the Capital Markets Board (the “Board”) for drafting secondary… »
Dealing With Social Media Influencers - Türkiye
Influencer marketing through social media influencers has achieved giant growth in the advertising sector. Brands, including global and local ones, co-operate with social media influencers to advertise their brands, goods and services because social media influencers are very capable of directing the consumers’ buying habits into certain brands via the presentations, recommendations and compliments they make. Similarly, based on global research statistics, Türkiye ranks… »
Is It Really Number One Of Türkiye?
Article 8 of the Regulation on Commercial Advertisement and Unfair Commercial Practices ("Regulation") permits comparative advertisements under specific conditions. Subparagraph (a) requires that such advertisements should "not be misleading or deceptive," while subparagraph (f) mandates that "claims based on objective, measurable, and numerical data must be substantiated by scientific tests, reports, or documents." Additionally, Article 9, titled "Burden of Proof," specifies… »
Turkish Court of Cassation’s Highlighting Decisions on Conceptual Similarity Evaluation
In the 1st paragraph of Article 6 of the Industrial Property Law no. 6769, which regulates the relative refusal grounds in trademark registration, the existence of a likelihood of confusion requires the condition of “identicalness or similarity” of the trademarks along with the similarity of the goods and/or services. During the evaluation of the similarity between the trademarks, the focus is commonly gathered on visual, aural and semantic similarity. The existence of any… »
Amendments to the Consumer Protection Law and E-Commerce Law
The Law No. 7529 on Amendments to the Consumer Protection Law and Certain Other Laws was published in the Official Gazette dated 30 October 2024 and numbered 32707. The law introduced amendments particularly to the direct sales provisions and administrative fines ruled by the Consumer Protection Law, as well as to the E-Commerce Law. Some amendments took immediate effect upon its publication date, while others will come into force later. Key Amendments to the Consumer… »
Calendarization Process for the Market Authorization of Medicines
Introduction The Guidelines for the Calendarization Process of Medicinal Products for Human Use (the “Guidelines”) aims to regulate the process for the market authorization applications on medicinal products for human use filed with the Turkish Medicines and Medical Devices Agency (the “Agency”). The Agency has determined the procedures and principles for calendarization processes of the applications found eligible in the pre-assessments. The Guidelines has been initially… »
News and Events
Hande Hançar and Baran Güney Spoke at Özyeğin University
Hande Hançar and Baran Güney made a presentation on ‘’Regulations on Social Media Advertisements’’ at the Advertising Law class where they attended as guest speakers at Özyeğin University.
Our Lawyers Met with ELSA Ankara Members
As part of the "Lawyers @ Work" event, we hosted ELSA (European Law Students Association) Ankara member law students in our office. Our lawyers shared their working in a full service and institutional law firm experience with ELSA Ankara members and answered the questions of the participants about our firm.
İrem Girenes Yücesoy Met with Students at Career Days Organized by Koç University
İrem Girenes Yücesoy, senior associate in our trademarks and designs practice, attended online career days event organized by Koç University Law Club and Career Development Center. İrem Girenes Yücesoy met with university students, talked about career opportunities, employee experience, operating models of our practice areas, and responded to students’ questions.
Dicle Doğan, Spoke on Anti-Corruption Rules in Life Sciences Industry in Turkey at Seton Hall Law School Program
Dicle Doğan, managing associate in our life sciences practice, shared her experience on “Anti-Corruption rules in life sciences industry in Turkey” at Middle East Healthcare Compliance Certificate Program, organized by Seton Hall Law School in Dubai, U.A.E.
Announcement of New Managing Associate and Senior Associate Promotions, 2023
We announce the promotion of our lawyers Baran Güney, Direnç Bada and Yalçın Umut Talay to managing associate; Ahmet Kürşat Yıldız, Atahan Erkul, Cansu Evren, Ezgi Kut and Merve Çimen Sevine to senior associate taking effect from 1 February 2023.
Begüm Yavuzdoğan Okumuş Attended IAPP Europe Data Protection Congress 2022
Begüm Yavuzdoğan Okumuş, partner in our Data protection and privacy practice, was the facilitator of Women Leading Privacy Section Meet-Up at IAPP Europe Data Protection Congress 2022 in Brussels on November 16th. https://iapp.org/conference/iapp-europe-data-protection-congress/
Scholarships and Mentoring Support to 50 University Students and Our Donation to UNICEF Türkiye in Wake of Kahramanmaraş Earthquakes.
To the people of the Republic of Türkiye, We are devastated by the great loss lives and the enormous moral and material destruction caused by the Kahramanmaraş earthquake across the 10 provinces in the affected region. We pray that all those who have passed away may rest in peace, and wish swift recovery, patience and resilience to those rescued and yet to be rescued. We wish the greatest ease in their rescue efforts to the volunteers, and all public and private…
Uğur Aktekin Spoke at 2022 GALA Annual Meeting
GALA is an alliance of lawyers located throughout the world with expertise and experience in advertising, marketing and promotion law. #GALA #advertising https://www.galalaw.com/Events/Article/4528
International Intellectual Property Protection Forum 2022
Our partners, Barış Kalaycı and Zeynep Seda Alhas gave a presentation on “Anti-counterfeiting in Turkey” to the attendees at the IIPPF (International Intellectual Property Protection Forum) on September 27th. We thank the organizers of the Forum and its Secretariat JETRO (Japan External Trade Organization) for their kind invitation to this highly successful webinar as well as their interest in our jurisdiction and expertise.
Hande Hançar Spoke at GALA Global Advertising in an Age of Crisis and Change Event
Hande Hançar spoke at GALA Annual Meeting and GALA Global Advertising in an Age of Crisis and Change Event respectively and discussed The Obesity Crisis and its relationship with HFSS, functional and novel foods advertising regulations.
Intellectual Property and Innovation Summit 2022, Europe
Managing IP’s Intellectual Property and Innovation Summit - Europe, took place at The Carlton Tower, London on 15 - 16 June. The event for 2022 focused on innovation and debate the future direction of the IP industry. Multiple tracks were featured, to explore in-depth challenges across all IP practice areas, including patents, brand protection, trademarks, strategy and leadership. Özge Atılgan Karakulak, partner in our patent and utility models practice, spoke at "Stream B:…
Managing IP EMEA Awards 2022 Recognize Gün + Partners’ Copyright and Design Practice Capabilities
Gün + Partners is named as “Turkey Copyright & Design Firm of the Year" at the Managing IP EMEA Awards 2022. Awards are presented to firms, individuals and companies behind the most innovative and challenging IP work of the past year, as well as those driving the international IP market.