The Turkish Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) published the Proof of Use Guidelines on April 28 2017 (please see “Turkish Patent and Trademark Office issues guidelines for proof of use of trademarks in opposition proceedings”), after the non-use defence was enacted by the new Industrial Property Code 6769 (IPC). In order to clarify the use and functions of this new procedure, the PTO issued an updated version of the guidelines on September 30 2017.
The PTO has added two major…
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The removal of product identification codes is a phenomenon and topic which trademark owners in certain branches have been dealing with for decades. In many cases, these codes not only allow the identification or tracing of the product for product safety reasons (product recalls), but may also serve the purpose of identifying the authorized reseller to whom a product was initially delivered by the brand owner. In particular, perfumes, cosmetics, and alcoholic beverages are…
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In June 2017 the Supreme Court rendered an important decision concerning the protection of employees’ privacy rights. The court reversed a first-instance labour court decision and ruled that the dismissal of an employee was unlawful on the grounds that (among other things) the employer had used the employee’s WhatsApp conversations (obtained in an impermissible way) as evidence, thus violating the employee’s right to privacy.
Facts
A group of employees presented a collective…
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The new Communiqué on the Pricing of Medicinal Products for Human Use (“Communiqué”) has been enacted on 29.09.2017. The Communiqué keeps the general framework of the pricing of pharmaceuticals, although it brings a few changes as foreseen in the Decision dated 24 February 2017 the Council of Ministers No. 2017/9901 (“Decision”)
The Communiqué introduced two new terms: “real source price” and “source price” which does not change the pricing system. The “real source price” is…
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New developments in Turkey could reignite an appetite for foreign investment into the region.
It is without a doubt that countries across Europe and the USA have experienced a flood of difficulties over recent years. Turkey has also experienced tough times, particularly in 2016 due to the increase in terrorist attacks, failed coup attempt and the ongoing state of the emergency situation and political instability in Turkey’s neighbouring countries. These political disorders…
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New communiqué on medicines pricing
Dicle Doğan, Bentley James Yaffe and Fatma Sevde Tan, Gün + Partners
On 29 September 2017, the Ministry of Health published the new “Communiqué on the Pricing of Medical Products for Human Use” in the Official Gazette numbered 30195. The communiqué contains significant amendments to the pricing of products subject to special conditions and the timetable of the pricing procedure.
Definitions have been added for the terms “exactly equal…
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Labour Courts Act has came into force on 25 October 2017
On 25 October 2017, the Labour Courts Act No. 7036 (“Act”) was published in the Official Gazette and officially came into effect. The Act aims to ease the judiciary’s workload and accelerate the judicial process in employment cases.
The Act brought a number of changes to employment cases. The most important changes can be summarized as follows;
Mandatory mediation is introduced for both employers and employees prior to…
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Turkish Patent and Trademark Office issues guidelines for proof of use in opposition proceedings
Following the entry into force of the Industrial Property Code (6769) on January 10 2017 and the Regulation on the Implementation of the Industrial Property Code on April 24 2017 (see “New IP Code enters into force: 2017 will be the year of IP rights” and “Entry into force of new Regulation on the Implementation of the Industrial Property Code”), on April 28 2017 the Turkish…
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Following the entry into force of the Turkish Industrial Property Code (the IP Code) on January 10, 2017, a draft of the implementing regulation regarding the IP Code was immediately prepared and views of the stakeholders were collected. The regulation has been finalized and was published in the Official Gazette on April 24, 2017.
The most important provisions in the regulation with respect to trademarks are in relation to co-existence agreements and the use requirement in…
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Introduction
The right of employees to annual paid leave is regulated by Articles 53 to 60 of the Labour Act (4857) and the Regulation on Annual Paid Leave.
According to the act and the regulation, employees can use their annual paid leave if they have worked for their employer for at least one year. Employees are entitled to at least:
14 days’ annual paid leave for one to five years of service;
20 days’ annual paid leave for five to 15 years of service; and
26 days’ annual…
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Reimbursement of optics products dependant on Product Tracking System subscription
Bentley James Yaffe and Nehir Aydeniz, Gün + Partners
In June 2017, the system for the registration of medical devices was switched from the National Databank of the Turkish Medicines and Medical Devices Agency (TITUBB) to the Product Tracking System (UTS).
According to a follow-up announcement on the website of the Turkish Medicines and Medical Devices Authority, the modules for the tracking…
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With its recent decision dated March 9 2017 and numbered 2016/14857 E, 2017/1442 K, the Turkish Court of Appeals (CoA), by reversing its previous decision in the same dispute, held that the trade marks Uludağ Zero and Panda Zero cannot be considered confusingly similar on the basis of the commonness of the term “zero” since this term is descriptive for beverages.
The decision concerns a cancellation action filed by the plaintiff against the decision given by the Turkish…
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