Insights
New Regulation Regarding the Use of Consumer Reviews
Consumer reviews have become an important part of the advertising ecosystem. These reviews are very influential to potential customers when they are making a purchasing decision. Marketers use reviews in advertising, they host reviews on their websites, they encourage consumers to post reviews on other sites, and some even try to prevent customers from posting negative reviews at all. Although consumer reviews have such a significant impact, the Turkish Law did not have a… »
Registrability of 3D Trademarks
The Turkish Court of Cassation (the CoC) issued a decision in which the registrability of a 3D medical device trade mark is discussed. This paper aims to provide the details of the matter and to remark upon its importance. Background A 3D device trade mark application covering goods in classes 5 and 10 was filed before the Turkish Patent and Trademark Office (the Office) and was rejected as the Office found the application as non-distinctive and descriptive. Court Phases The… »
Effective Date of Additional Obligations on Consumer Protection Approaches
The Law No. 7392, published in the Official Gazette numbered 31796 on April 1, 2022, has introduced significant changes to many issues regulated under the Consumer Protection Law (the “Law”). The provisions of the new law that relate to timeshare and long-term vacation agreements entered into force on April 1, 2022, before the summer season. However, most of the changes, including those below, will come into effect on October 1, 2022. As the changes are substantial, we… »
Explicit Consent under The Data Protection Law
Explicit consent has been defined as consent that relates to a specified issue, declared by free will, and based on information. The definition provides that not all kinds of consent will suffice under the Data Protection Law. The data subject must know for what s/he is giving consent and must clearly express his/her consent. For example, consent obtained in English from non-English speakers in Turkey would not be considered to be explicit consent. Further, implied consent is… »
Recent Developments on Using Personal Data Unlawfully Collected as Evidence
According to Article 38 of the Turkish Constitution, findings that are acquired unlawfully cannot be used as evidence. In this respect, using personal data as evidence in disputes requires a legal assessment on whether the personal data is collected lawfully or not. In principle, evidence that are obtained unlawfully shall not be allowed in legal proceedings. As known, the main legislation related to protection of personal data is the Turkish Personal Data Protection Law No.… »
IP Rights Can Also Protect Public Health and Safety
Gün + Partners recently acted in a case that started as an ordinary anti-counterfeiting case, but which was quickly identified as something much bigger. When it turned out that some fake ‘fire-resistant’ glass was not fire-resistant at all, public health and safety became a major concern as well as trademark infringement. The case began after we received a picture of some fire-resistant glass from a global manufacturer of these products. The logo trademark was simply printed… »
Guidelines on Licensing Allergen Products Published
On 9 March 2022, the Turkish Medicines and Medical Devices Agency (Agency) published on its official website the Guidelines on Licensing of Allergen Products (Turkish language). The Guidelines were prepared in accordance with the Regulation on Licensing of Human Medicinal Products (Regulation) which was recently published (see Legal update, New Regulation on licensing of medicinal products for human use (Turkey)). The Regulation divided the abridged marketing authorisation… »
Pharmaceutical Licensing Regulation Harmonized with EU Legislation
The new Regulation on Licensing of the Human Medicinal Products (“Regulation”) prepared by Turkish Medicines and Medical Devices Agency (“Agency”) has entered into force following its publication in the official Gazette numbered 31686 and dated December 11, 2021. The purpose of the Regulation is reflecting processes already existing in the Agency’s practice which were not regulated under the Regulation on Licensing of the Human Medicinal Products dated 2005 (“previous… »
Constitutional Court’s Last Judgement on Inspection of Employees' Correspondences
With the judgement dated 28 December 2021 and numbered 2018/34584[1], the Constitutional Court discussed the employer’s examination of the employees’ correspondence sent through the messaging program called WhatsApp and the termination of the employment contracts based on these correspondences, within the scope of the right to privacy and freedom of communication. In the said decision, the Constitutional Court ruled that the employer's obtaining of the contents of the… »
Leveraging Civil and Criminal Routes in Trademark Infringement Cases
Five years have passed since the adoption of Turkey’s new Intellectual Property Code (“IP Code”), which annulled the Trademark Decree-Law no. 556 (“D-L”) back in January 2017. This piece of legislation introduced several changes to the trademark law. Some changes were expected for a long time, whereas some were surprising even to IP practitioners who were directly involved in preparing the draft of the IP Code. It would be fair to say that the Office and the courts almost… »
Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) and Trademarks
Non-Fungible Token (NFT), which we have heard more often since the beginning of 2021, is a digital asset that uses blockchain technology and mostly operates within Ethereum. NFT is a digital token that cannot be exchanged or replaced and may represent many tangible objects in the real world, such as songs, artworks, GIFs, virtual game items, videos, cartoons. NFT is technically not the asset itself, whereas it is a metadata file that contains the unique combination of Token… »
Recent Developments & Turkey’s Position on SEPs: Navigating The Technology-Driven World
Standard essential patent (SEP) appears to be the new buzzword of patent law considering the upward trend in patent litigation arising from SEPs. Indeed, the continuous technological advancement supports the creation of SEPs so this trend is likely to continue in the near future. Accordingly, SEPs is a concept arising from the interaction between patent rights, which provide exclusive use of an invention and ‘standards’ aimed at the widespread and mandatory use of this… »