On 29 December 2023, the Turkish Medicines and Medical Devices Agency (“Agency”) has published Guidelines on the Conditions for Pharmaceutical Export Made by Companies Other than Pharmaceutical Warehouses (the “Guidelines”). The Guidelines has been prepared in order to ensure the shipment and export of pharmaceutical products and dietary foods for special medical purpose in compliance with national and international standards, while protecting public health.
The Guidelines…
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On 4 January 2024, the Turkish Medicines and Medical Devices Agency (“Agency”) announced on its official website that the Guidelines on Scientific Meetings and Educational Events to be Held within the Scope of the Regulation on the Sales, Advertisement and Promotion of Medical Devices (“Guidelines”) has been updated.
Within the scope of the update, only in the third paragraph of Article 9 of the Guidelines, which came into force on 04 January 2024, the following issues have…
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Consumer reviews are of great importance in online shopping as they enable consumers to form their opinion in terms of the features and quality of the products or services that they consider purchasing and the care and professionalism the sellers and providers present to consumers.
Due to the decisive impact of consumer reviews on consumers’ shopping preferences, the Regulation on Commercial Advertising and Unfair Commercial Practices ("Regulation") were amended on February…
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It is widely accepted in the literature[1] and decisions of the Court of Cassation[2] (“CoC”) that an applicant's attempt to create a trademark portfolio by trying to register other well-known trademarks can be sufficient to constitute proof of bad faith. In this context, first instance courts and regional courts of appeals will examine the applicant's other trademark applications and might accept that the registration of the disputed trademark was attempted in bad faith…
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This long-running case went all the way to the Court of Cassation
The Trademarks Department had partially refused the application for EUROPATENT on the grounds of descriptiveness and lack of distinctiveness; the board then decided ex officio to refuse the application for all the services applied for, citing additional grounds for refusal
The case was analysed under the provisions of the now-repealed Decree Law No 556, which was in force at the relevant date
Absolute…
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Administrative revocation will be possible before the Office as of 10 January 2024.
According to Article 9 of the Industrial Property Law No. 6769 (“IPL”), if a trademark is not used in five years as of its registration date or its use is suspended for a consecutive period of five years; it will be vulnerable to revocation due to non-use.
Revocation of trademarks based on non-use were traditionally filed as a court action before the specialized IP courts under the previous…
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Beril Yayla Sapan and Begüm Yavuzdogan Okumuş have contributed to Data Guidance Turkey - Employment, which is published by OneTrust.
OneTrus Data Guidance Turkey - Employment provides detailed information on employee privacy and data protection regulations in Turkey, covering key legislation, official guidelines, supervisory authorities, and case law. It outlines the absence of a specific employee privacy law in Turkey but emphasizes the importance of the Personal Data…
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Overview
On 14 September 2022, TRABIS (‘.tr’ Network Information System) took over the management of ‘.tr’ extended domain names with the Regulation coming into force in Türkiye.
According to the Regulation, domain names can be allocated as documented or undocumented. Undocumented allocation is carried out within the framework of the ‘first come, first served’ rule. This rule is applied to domain names with the most commonly used extensions such as ‘.com.tr’, ‘.org.tr’…
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The Constitutional Court in its decision dated 12.10.2023 and numbered 2020/7518, published in the Official Gazette dated 15.12.2023, determined that the deficiencies in the proceedings against the administrative fine imposed by the Personal Data Protection Board (the “Board”) on a global hotel chain (the “Applicant”), in which the Board determined to have violated its obligations to ensure data security, violated the Applicant’s right to property. Within this framework, the…
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Pharmaceuticals not authorized in Turkey or authorized pharmaceuticals not available in the market, shall be procured from abroad as per a special authorization (named patient program) in cases where patients require such pharmaceuticals.
While this exceptional import regime for pharmaceuticals was until recently regulated by the Medicines and Medical Devices Agency ("Agency") through guideline, the Regulation on Supply of Pharmaceuticals from Abroad ("Regulation") was…
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Pursuant to Article 1524 of the Turkish Commercial Code (the "TCC"), joint stock and limited liability companies that are subject to independent audit (for detailed information on which companies are subject to independent audit please click here to access our article on the subject) are required to open a website within 3 months following the date of their incorporations in the trade registry or the date of entry into force of this obligation, and to devote a certain portion…
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The Ministry of Commerce, aligning with the European Union and the Free Trade Agreement frameworks, has introduced some regulations for importing electric vehicles.
On November 29, 2023, the Communiqué on the Import of Some Electric Vehicles (the “Communiqué”) was published on the Official Gazette.
The Communiqué serves the purpose of regulating the import of electric vehicles belonging to non-European Union member states and Free Trade Agreement non-signatory states…
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