Before the establishment of regional courts of appeal, the Court of Cassation (“CoC”), the highest court of the Turkish judicial system, used its judicial power as a review of expediency by examining the merits of the case, as required by the binary justice system. In the new period following 2016, when the regional courts of appeal began to operate, the primary duty assigned to the CoC is to act as a court of precedents.Even though the regional courts of appeal started to…
»
With medicines, the rule is clear: The general public cannot be the audience of any promotional activity, whatsoever, of pharmaceutical products. However, with medical devices, the rule in place in the Regulation on the Sales, Advertisement and Promotion of Medical Devices (“Medical Device Promotion Regulation”) notes more confusing regulation. The rule states that medical devices that are sold, adapted or applied in hearing aid centers, custom-made prosthesis and orthotics…
»
The Regulation on the Importation, Production, Processing and Supply of Food Supplements (the “Regulation”) was published by the Ministry of Food and Forestry (the “MoA”) on 2 May 2013 in the Official Gazette, and came into force as of 2 August 2013.
The said Regulation is not only the first regulation that has been drafted, particularly on food supplements, but also includes unique provisions with regard to the control and approval mechanism to be established over food…
»
The packaging and labelling requirements for cosmetic products are regulated under Cosmetic Law numbered 5324 (the “Law”) and the Regulation on Cosmetics (the “Regulation”) of the TITCK of the MoH.
In addition to the Law and the Regulation, the Guidelines on the Promotional Activities of Cosmetic Products and the Regulation on the Health Claims of the Products that are Offered for Sale with a Health Claim (“Health Claim Regulation”) are still applicable, which means…
»
The protection of personal data (including personal health data) is regulated under Personal Data Protection Law (“DPL”) numbered 6698. The DPL provides legal reasons for the processing of personal data and for sensitive personal data (data relating to race, ethnic origin, political beliefs, philosophical beliefs, religion, denomination, or other faiths, clothing and attire, membership of an association, charity or union, criminal convictions, and security measures, as well…
»
We have previously reported on the Turkish Court of Cassation’s decision concluding that the Turkish Patent and Trademark Office has no authority to create and maintain a registry for well-known trademarks and discussed the possible repercussions of this decision for trademark owners (Well-known Trademark Registry Is Again Open for Debate).
In this article we will examine how practice has been shaped in the light of this decision, offer tips for brand owners during this…
»
In Turkey, according to Article 5/1(b) and Article 5/1(c) of Industrial Property Code (“the IP Code”) numbered 6769, respectively, “signs which are devoid of any distinctive character” and “signs which consist exclusively of or includes as an essential element of signs or indications which serve in trade to designate the kind, type, characteristics, quality, quantity, intended purpose, value, geographical origin, or the time of production of the goods or rendering of the…
»
On 30 September 2019 the Turkish Patent and Trademark Office issued guidelines regarding the examination standards for trademark applications in terms of absolute grounds, which were the first of their kind under Turkish law. Recently, a new chapter concerning the substantive examination standards for the assessment of confusing similarity has also been published.
The new chapter covers the topics below:
the concept of ‘likelihood of confusion’;
the similarity of goods and…
»
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…
»
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…
»
In its recent decisions[1], the Advertisement Board imposed sanctions against the advertising of counterfeit products that were sold and advertised as genuine products on various websites Instagram pages, according to Law No. 6502 on Protection of the Consumer (“Consumer Protection Law”) and the Regulation on Commercial Advertisement and Unfair Commercial Practices (“Advertising Regulation”).
The complaints subject to these decisions are based on the fact that the…
»
This matter started as an ordinary anti-counterfeiting case after receiving a picture of a fire-resistant glass from a global manufacturer of such products. The logo trademark was simply printed on the glass, and due to several inconsistencies, it was explicitly a fake product. Nevertheless, when it turned out that the fake product was not fire-resistant at all, public health and safety became the major concern besides trademark infringement.
After an investigation into the…
»
