Insights
Non-Fungible Tokens (“NFTs”) and Copyright Law
NFTs have been one of the most popular topics for copyright law during 2022. Discussions were widely held about whether NFTs could be considered copyrightable works, whether purchase of an NFT grants authorship rights to the buyer, which formal requirements are relevant for a valid copyright assignment for an NFT, and which particular rights associated with copyright could be infringed by unauthorized use. Although we are yet to see legislation concerning these issues, many… »
New Turkish Domain Name System Creates a Situation in Need of Resolution
Nic.tr (.tr Domain Name Management), which was established under the auspices of Middle East Technical University, has been managing .tr domain names and dispute resolution processes related to these domain names since 1991. However, under Article 35 of Law No. 5809 on Electronic Communications and the Internet Domain Names Regulation, TRABIS (.tr Network Information System), established by the Information and Communication Technologies Authority, became operational on… »
What’s New In The Amended E-Commerce Law For IP
Law No. 7416, amending E-Commerce Law, came into effect on 1 January 2023, and a comprehensive change has been made to Article 9, titled "obligations of intermediary service providers", including the title of the provision. Following this change, the title of Article 9 was changed to "illegal content". According to this article, unless there is a contrary provision in other laws, the general principle is that the intermediary service provider is not responsible for the… »
Protection of Websites Under Turkish Law
Websites that are part of our daily lives consist of many elements such as webpages, the user interface, computer software, databases, and servers. Although there is no set of rules specifically applicable to them under Turkish law, their constituent elements and their content can be conferred legal protection if they meet the requirements of existing legislation. The question of whether websites are conferred additional legal protection separate from their constituent… »
Legislative Proposal on the Amendment of the Law on Pharmaceuticals and Medical Preparations No. 1262 and Certain Laws
The Legislative Proposal on the Amendment of the Law on Pharmaceuticals and Medical Preparations No. 1262, Certain Laws and Decree Law No. 663 (“the Legislative Proposal”) dated March 20, 2023, and numbered 2/5006 is an omnibus bill having some amendment offers regarding the regulating legislation of the health sector. The Legislative Proposal suggests defining the obligation of registration and notification to the Drug Tracking System at the level of the law, updating the… »
Notes from the 2019 Corruption Perceptions Index for Turkey
On 23 January 2020, Transparency International announced the much-awaited results of the 2019 Corruption Perceptions Index (the “CPI 2019”), which reflects the perception of country experts, non-governmental organisations and representatives of the business world of corruption in public sector. The CPI 2019 scores 180 countries and territories on a scale from 0 (highly corrupt) to 100 (very clean). The results, unfortunately, did not come as too much of a surprise for Turkey… »
Recent Developments in TURKPATENT's Practice on Recording of Well-known Trademarks
We have previously reported on the Turkish Court of Cassation’s decision concluding that the Turkish Patent and Trademark Office (hereinafter will be referred to as “TURKPATENT” or “the Office”) has no authority to create and maintain a registry for well-known trademarks and discussed possible repercussions of this decision for trademark owners. (Please see https://www.worldtrademarkreview.com/article/court-of-cassation-reopens-debate-recordation-of-well-known-trademarks) The… »
The Revocation Procedure of Trademarks to be Handled by the Turkish Patent and Trademark Office
Until the Industrial Property Law No. 6769 (“IPL”) entered into force on January 10, 2017, procedures regarding trademark rights were carried out with the abolished Decree-Law No. 556 on the Protection of Trademarks (“Decree Law”). The concept of "revocation", one of the cases of termination of a trademark right, regulated in both legislations, was defined under Article 14 of the Decree-Law. However, Article 14 was cancelled by the Constitutional Court with the decision… »
Is Partial Victory a Real Victory?
In 2022, the Ankara Regional Court of Appeal (“the RCA”) rendered a decision for an appeal regarding a cancellation action against the Turkish Patent and Trademark Office’s ( “the Office”) decision. Based on this decision, it is concluded that if an argument is rejected during the opposition proceedings before the Office and no appeal is filed against the non-acceptance of this argument before the Higher Board of the Office (even though the decision is in favour of the… »
A Precedent on 3D Trademarks’ Enforcement
In 2022, the Turkish Court of Cassation (“TCoC”) rendered a decision evaluating that the use of a 3D trademark (shown below) as bag-locks on counterfeit goods infringed the trademark holder’s rights and the accused should have known that this 3D shape is a trademark. The case subject to the precedent decision had started with the 3D trademark owner submitting a criminal complaint by arguing that their 3D trademark was used on counterfeit products. After the case turned into… »
Can The Accused be Acquitted Solely on The Grounds That The Number of Seized Counterfeits Is Very Low?
The acts considered as infringement of trademark rights are regulated under Article 29 of Industrial Property Law no. 6769 (“IPL”) and article 29/1(c) states that “To imitate the trademark upon using the trademark or its indistinguishably similar version without the permission of the holder; to sell, distribute, to trade in any other way, to import, export, keep for commercial purposes the products bearing the trademark used by means of violation…” constitute trademark… »
New Regulation from ICTA on Social Network Providers
The definition of "Social Network Provider" was first introduced in the amendments made to the Law numbered 5651 on the Regulation of Internet Broadcasts and Prevention of Crimes Committed through Such Broadcasts (“Internet Law”) that came into force on October 01, 2020. These amendments introduced several regulations for social network providers. The Information and Communication Technologies Authority ("ICTA") initially decided the scope and application of the regulations… »
News and Events
2017 ANA/BAA Marketing Law Conference
This event has passed. Hande Hançar Çelik, partner and co-chair of our TMT practice, will speak on legal developments in global advertising and its reflection on Turkey at ANA/BAA Marketing Law Conference in Chicago, IL, USA from Nov 13-15, 2017. Date: Monday, 13 November 2017 - Wednesday, 15 November 2017 Venue: Marriott Chicago Downtown Magnificent Mile 540 N Michigan Avenue Chicago, IL 60611 2017 ANA/BAA Marketing Law Conference
Webinar: World IP Day – Conversation on Impact of COVID-19 on IP
Gün + Partners will once again celebrate the World IP Day. On the occasion of this special day, which is celebrated to remind everyone of the critical role that intellectual property plays in encouraging creativity and innovation, on 27 April 2020, we will discuss the impact of COVID-19 on intellectual property rights. Moderator: Özge Atılgan Karakulak Speakers: Selin Sinem Erciyas and Zeynep Seda Alhas “How to”s with civil, criminal and customs IP proceedings in an…
Kyiv Arbitration Days: Think Big!
Pelin Baysal spoke at Kyiv Arbitration Days: Think Big! held in conjunction with the Ukrainian Bar Association . She shared her experiences on “Document production (including government parties): The good or the evil?” See the presentation here Date: Friday, 14 September 2018 Venue: Fairmont Grand Hotel, Kyiv, Ukraine
Biolegis Meeting 2018
We have hosted Biolegis Meeting 2018 in Istanbul on 13-14 Sep 2018 with the attendance of Biolegis member law firms and corporate counsels of life science companies. Our lawyers Ozan Karaduman and Begüm Yavuzdoğan Okumuş with Funda Zeynep Ekincioglu from MSD Türkiye shared their experiences on processing personal health data in life science under the GDPR and Turkish Law on Protection of Personal Data. Biolegis is a pan-European network of law firms with in-depth expertise…
The Legal 500 – GC Summit Turkey
This event has passed. Mehmet Gün moderated the panel on “The In-House Counsel’s Guide to Best Practice for (Alternative) Dispute Resolution in Turkey” at GC Summit Turkey by The Legal 500 (Legalease) with the panellists Cem Kalpaklıoğlu from TOROS TARIM and Atike Kökbudak from Kordsa. Date: Thursday, 27 September 2018 Venue: Çırağan Palace Kempinski Hotel, Istanbul, Turkey
Structural Reforms Panel - Better Justice Assn and TURKONFED
Our founding partner Mehmet Gün presented “Turkey’s Dilemma: Middle Income and Middle Democracy Traps” policy report and expressed the importance of an efficient and accountable judiciary who will then deserve full independence and take a leading role in Turkey’s exit from “middle-income and middle-democracy traps” at the “Structural Reforms Panel” jointly organized by Better Justice Association, of which we are among the founders, and TURKONFED, hosted by Kars Bar…
Gün + Partners is attending IBA Annual Conference in Sydney
Our partners Mehmet Gün, Ugur Aktekin, Pelin Baysal, ÖZGE KARAKULAK and managing associate Ozan Karaduman are attending IBA Annual Conference Sydney 2017. Please contact gun@gun.av.tr if you wish to meet with them.
Life Sciences Newsletter, April 2017
Changes in guidelines on named patient programmesDicle Doğan and Merve Çimen, Gun + Partners On 29 March 2017, the Turkish Medicines and Medical Devices Agency amended the Guidelines on the Supply from Abroad and the Use of Pharmaceuticals. The amended guidelines establish a new practice in the Named Patient Programme (NPP) that enables the Social Security Institution to import non-approved or unavailable pharmaceutical products from abroad on a named patient basis. The…
Uğur Aktekin has spoken in seminar co-hosted by FICPI - TÜRKİYE and TÜRKPATENT
Our partner Uğur Aktekin, co-chair of our IP practice and president of FICPI - TÜRKİYE, has spoken on standards of the profession of IP attorneys during the serial seminars co-hosted by FICPI - TÜRKİYE and TÜRKPATENT in İstanbul and Ankara from Oct 30-31, 2017.
Summer Internship
2017 yılında, 19 yasal stajyer ve 100’den fazla yaz stajyeri büromuzda farklı çalışma gruplarında staj tecrübesi edindi. 2018 yılı staj programları için web sitemizden bilgi edinebilir ve başvuru yapabilirsiniz.
INTA Pre–Annual Meeting co-hosted by Gün + Partners
INTA Pre–Annual Meeting co-hosted by Gün + Partners in İstanbul, Turkey on Feb 16, 2018. Önder Erol Ünsal, founder of "IPR Gezgini" shared his IP Law Blogging experience with regards to trademark law.
Model Court of Justice 2018
Güldeniz Doğan Alkan, partner in our intellectual property practice, was the keynote speaker for the United Kingdom Intellectual Property Enterprise Court during the Model Court of Justice 2018 in Ankara, Turkey on Feb 09, 2018.