Insights
Scope of Protection of Weak Marks in Turkey
In a decision published on 18 December 2019, the Turkish Court of Cassation (COC) ruled that trade marks inspired by descriptive words, which are not allowed to be monopolized, are weak trade marks and cannot be protected like trade marks with a high distinctiveness. Even small differences can make these trade marks distinctive, and owners of weak marks cannot oppose the registration of the same signs with different elements. Mutlu Yıldırım Köse explains Plaintiff's… »
Insights as to Turkish Copyright Law
What can content creators do to protect themselves? Copyright protection is mainly regulated under Turkish Intellectual and Artistic Works Law No. 5846 (referred to as Law No. 5846 hereafter). As to the Turkish Copyright Law, protection shall start with the creation and publication of the work to the public which meets the conditions under the Law No. 5846. Therefore neither registration of the copyright owned work with any competent authority nor confirmation of the same is… »
Drug Licensing Regulation Amended
Dicle Doğan and Fatma Sevde Tan, Gun + Partners On 8 January 2020, a Regulation amending the Regulation on Licensing of Human Medicinal Products (Turkish language) was published in Official Gazette (No 31002). Those amendments entered into force the same day. The new Regulation adds an additional paragraph to Article 2 of the Regulation on Licensing of Human Medicinal Products (Licensing Regulation). With the additional paragraph, individual allergen products and skin tests… »
Social Security Institution Announcement on Imported Supply of Pharmaceuticals
Özge Atılgan Karakulak and Dicle Doğan, Gun + Partners On 7 January 2020, the Social Security Institution (SSI) published an announcement (Turkish language) on the procurement of pharmaceuticals from abroad by Ibn-i Sina Health and Social Security Centre (Ibn-i Sina). The announcement required that all bids from manufacturers, authorised firms, intermediary firms and pharmaceutical warehouses for the supply of certain specified pharmaceuticals or their generics to Ibn-i Sina… »
Supreme Court Revokes Its Decision on Service Date of Electronic Notifications
Introduction As of 1 January 2019, the scope of electronic notification was expanded to include several institutions, including all public institutions and organisations, lawyers, notaries, experts and mediators following amendments to the Notification Law (7201). The Post and Telegraph Organisation has been assigned the operation of electronic notification transactions through the National Electronic Notification System. Further, the Regulation on Notification via Electronic… »
Changes to Minimum Wage, Severance Payments and Administrative Fines in 2020
Minimum wage Severance payments Administrative fines At the beginning of each year, the minimum wage, severance payments and administrative fines prescribed by the Labour Act are revised. On 1 January 2020 the changes for 2020 came into effect. Minimum wage In 2019 the monthly minimum wage rate was TL2,558.40 (gross). As of 1 January 2020, this has increased to TL2,943.00 (gross). The new rate applies from 1 January 2020 to 31 December 2020. The minimum wage applies to all… »
Unfair Approach of Turkish IP Courts while Assessing “Bolar Exemption”
The article 85(3) (c) of the Industrial Property Law, which excludes the marketing authorization application from the scope of the patent right, is interpreted by the IP courts against the patent holder in a disproportionate way. The exemption here is the procedures that generic companies required to perform before the Ministry of Health in order to obtain a marketing authorization. Thus, for example, it enables the generic pharmaceutical company that applied for marketing… »
Turkish Appeal Court Rules in Cow Trade Mark Case
In a case concerning trade mark and copyright law, the Turkish Court of Appeal has ruled that the use of a figure intensively cannot prevent the use of similar figures, as long as they are not identical. Background A recent decision of the Court of Appeal concerned an application to register a trade mark (shown right) in classes 29 and 43. The word elements in this application can be considered of low distinctiveness: ET means “meat” in Turkish, and so is descriptive for… »
Amendment on Commercial Communication Regulation in Turkey
With the “Regulation Amending the Regulation on Commercial Communication and Commercial Electronic Messages” (“Regulation”) published on 4 January 2020, new obligations were imposed on commercial electronic messaging that would affect all those using electronic messages. Under the new regulations, the most crucial obligation is registry with the newly established Message Management System called IYS. “Data, audio and video content messages that are sent for commercial… »
CJEU Declares the Criteria to be Considered in Determination of Bad Faith
In its judgement of 12 September 2019, the European Union Court of Justice (“CJEU”) held that the applicant was acting in bad faith when he filed the application for the trademark taking the earlier business relationship between the applicant and the opponent and ruled how the conditions sought for bad faith should be examined. In the judgment C-104/18 P, which was handed down by the CJEU on 12.09.2019, it was declared which criteria should be taken into consideration for the… »
A Comparative Analysis of Content-of-Laws Inquiry and its Importance for International Commercial Arbitration
How is the content of laws determined, and by whom, in international commercial arbitration? This topic mainly concerns an old legal assumption: iura novit curia, the Latin legal maxim for “the court knows the law”. While somewhat reasonable and predictable on the face of it since anyone can reasonably expect the court to know the law, the assumption paves the way for some serious practical consequences: If the court knows the law, parties are mostly expected to furnish the… »