Insights
How Do Insurance Contracts Respond to COVID-19 Outbreak?
1. General Overlook Measures and restrictions being gradually introduced by the government against the COVID-19 outbreak, which was announced as a pandemic by the World Health Organization and diagnosed for the first time in Turkey on 11 March 2020, aim to protect public health while sustaining employment, production and supply chains. Restrictions, which were first imposed on flights to China in February, were introduced for flights to another 71 countries in March.[1] These… »
Guidelines on Named Patient Programme Amended
The Amended Guidelines on Named Patient Program (“Guidelines”) has been published by the Turkish Medicines and Medical Devices Agency (“Agency”) on September 25, 2020. The Guidelines explains the procedure on the supply from abroad of drugs that are not authorized in Turkey and/or not available on the Turkish market due to various reasons. This Guidelines was first published in 2014, amended in 2015 and 2017, and finally published in its most current version on September 25… »
Guidelines on Non-Clinical Evaluation of Vaccines
On 6 October 2020, the Turkish Medicines and Medical Devices Agency published Guidelines on Non-Clinical Evaluation of Human Vaccines (Turkish language) to provide guidance on vaccine development procedures. The guidelines regulate non-clinical evaluations and obtaining appropriate results from them, which are prerequisites for initiating clinical trials on a vaccine candidate. Non-clinical evaluation refers to all in vivo and in vitro tests performed before and during the… »
FICPI Turkish Section under the Spotlight
The initiative for the foundation of the FICPI Turkish section was started in 2012 by a handful of Turkish practitioners, who were individual members of FICPI. The aim of founding the National Section was to be more active within FICPI as Turkish members and to help shape the IP system in our country by keeping abreast of the developments in the world. With the support of President of FICPI at that time, Mr Bastiaan Koester, the FICPI Bureau and the FICPI officers, various… »
Does the Use of a Trademark on a Book Cover Qualify As Infringement?
In a recently published decision (No 2020/406 E, 2020/4212 K, 19 October 2020), the Court of Cassation(11 Chamber) has considered that the use of a trademark on a book cover was a legitimate use.BackgroundThe case was originally led before the Bakırköy Second IP Court. The complainants - Dünya Süper Veb Ofset Anonim Şirketi, the owner of the Dünya newspaper, and Mr Nezih Demirkent, the newspaper’s founder - alleged that the defendants infringed the trademark depicted below… »
Employing a Trademark as a Domain Name Alone is Not Sufficient to Prove Genuine Use
The first instance Civil Court for Intellectual and Industrial Rights (“IP court”) in its decision rendered in October, 2020, pointed out that the use of the subject mark solely as a domain name is not deemed sufficient to prove the use of the mark as a trademark. The decision concerns a revocation action for non-use filed against a trademark that has been registered for more than five years, but which has not been used properly and effectively with respect to the relevant… »
DERBY Case: Court of Appeal Overturns Lowercourt Decisions in Controversial Ruling
In opposition proceedings, the Court of Appeal has found that there was copyright infringement since the opponent’s logo had been copied in the mark applied for The well-known status of the earlier mark also served as a basis for the decision Arguably, the court correctly found that the applicant’s trademark should not be registered, but erred in its reasoning Background The owner of the DERBY trademark, registered and well known for razor blades, opposed an application for… »
Data Breach Notification
The Data Protection Law requires data controllers to notify the relevant data subject and the Board as soon as possible when being made aware of such data breach. In its decision dated January 24, 2019 and numbered 2019/9, the Board clarified the rules and procedures to be applied in data breach incidents. The Board takes the GDPR approach in terms of timing of breach notifications, and clarified that the term of “as soon as possible” must be interpreted as 72 hours of… »
Data Controllers’ Registry (VERBIS)
Pursuant to Article 16 of the Data Protection Law, an obligation to register in the Data Controllers Registry has been introduced for data controllers. In 2018, the Board issued decisions granting exemptions from registration obligation to certain professional groups, associations and political parties. The Board also granted a general exemption to local data controllers that have less than 50 employees, and actively less than TRY 25 million on their balance sheets. Data… »
Court of Appeal: Plaintiff Lost its Right to Claim Trademark Infringement Due to Silence
In a case involving several MESA marks, the Court of Appeal has confirmed that the plaintiff had lost its right to claim trademark infringement due to its silence The court applied this principle even though the defendant had not clearly raised it as a defence The case highlights that loss of right to sue due to silence is an important tool for defendants in trademark infringement/invalidation actions Background The plaintiff, acting as the owner of the trademark MESA and… »
Court of Appeal Reverses Own Decision in WING CHUN Case
The First-Instance IP Court rejected a request for the invalidation of the mark WING CHUN in Classes 41 and 45, and the Court of Appeal affirmed On further appeal, the Court of Appeal reversed its own opinion The court held that the mark should be invalidated for some of the remaining services in Class 41 Background In 2011 the defendant applied to register the trademark WING CHUN in Classes 41 and 45, including sports activities, educational services, organisation of… »
Constitutional Court's Recent Decision on Reviewing Employees’ Corporate E-Mails by Employers
Reviewing employees’ corporate e-mail addresses by employers and relying on any findings collected during the inspection in a potential termination has been a controversial issue in terms of protection of personal data and privacy. The Constitutional Court rendered two decisions within the last four years regarding the right to privacy and privacy of communication aspects of the matter. Both decisions particularly elaborate on information of employees. Constitutional Court's… »