In April 2016, Turkey faced one of the biggest data breaches ever recorded, where it was claimed that the personal data of almost 50 million Turkish citizens was leaked online. That breach is currently being investigated by the prosecuting officer, and although officials claim that the data leak only contains data from 2009 and reveals no new records beyond that time – it is still accepted as a colossal data breach.In the meantime, the long awaited Data Protection Law (the…
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Facts
In the first of two recent Turkish Patent Institute (TPI) decisions, the applicant filed a trademark application for the phrase ‘lana del rey’, seeking registration in Classes 25 and 35. The opponent – who had been using this phrase as her stage name for years and had become a world-renowned singer and songwriter under that name, and also had trademark registrations abroad for this phrase – filed an opposition against the application. The opposition was based on:
• the…
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The Turkish Parliament took the draft IP Law into its program on 6 April 2016 and plans to enact it in mid 2016. The draft law is promising as it mainly fulfils the aim to harmonize the national law with EU law and removes discrepancies between national law and international agreements of Turkey. On the other hand it appears that the legislator focused on the must provisions and refrained from ruling on any area more than necessary. The amendments brought to IP law are…
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Introduction
On April 7 2016 the long-awaited Law on the Protection of Personal Data (the Data Protection Law) was published in the Official Gazette. While many of the Data Protection Law’s provisions came into effect on publication, the implementation of a few important provisions has been postponed until six months after the publication date.
The Data Protection Law provides the framework for a central data protection regime, which Turkey previously lacked, and clarifies…
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The Turkish Patent Institute (TPI) shared die new Draft Industrial Property Code (the Draft Code) with the public at the end of February, collected remarks of the relevant stakeholders on it and the Draft Code has been sent onto the Parliament recently.
The Draft Code was introduced to the Turkish domestic law on 24 February 2016. The TPI shared it and allowed the stakeholders to convey their opinions within ten days.The period of consultation finished on 4 March 2016, there…
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Introduction
Pursuant to Article 445 of the Commercial Code (6102/2011), an invalidation action can be filed against general assembly resolutions that conflict with the law, articles of association – in particular, good-faith principles within three months from the date of the resolution.
The three-month period does not apply if there is a nullity decision in question. The previous Commercial Code regulated only invalidation cases, whereas general provisions applied to…
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Legal framework
Turkey is a party to most international IP-related treaties, including the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPs), which aims to harmonise the legal framework for anti-counterfeiting and anti-piracy. Accordingly, Trademark Decree-Law 556 is almost fully compliant with TRIPs.
There are specialist civil and criminal IP courts in the three largest Turkish cities (Istanbul, Ankara and Izmir). In other cities the regular civil…
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While the world was adopting a data-driven economy, Turkey lacked a separate legislation on data protection. Enactment of a data protection law was a real need for Turkey’s EU harmonization process since in the absence of such a regime, Turkey is found to be not adequate in terms of data protection standards. Although enactment of Turkish data protection law used to be on the agenda o the government for long time, it could not come into force until this year. Finally, Law on…
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Turkey has been among the fastest growing insurance markets of its size in Europe. Along with the rapid growth in the Turkish Insurance sector, there have been major changes to the insurance legislation in the last few years. New legislation has improved the regulatory framework and has brought the industry more into line with international practice. Although the top three insurers are Turkey-based, the market as a whole has a high level of foreign investment due to the fact…
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On 17 June 2015, the General Assembly of the Civil Chambers of the Court of Appeals rendered an interesting verdict regarding the right to be forgotten. According to this verdict, an individual could ask for his or her name to be erased from even law books, if the relevant book includes personal information which the relevant individual would not like to share with public.
The verdict is interesting from a number of aspects. Firstly, it is a decision made by not only a single…
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Article 7/1(b) of the Trademark Decree-Law (556) provides for absolute refusal during the ex officio examination of the Turkish Patent Institute (TPI) by stating that a trademark “identical or indistinguishably similar to a trademark registered earlier or with an earlier filing date for registration in respect of identical or same type of products or services shall not be registered”. Pursuant to this provision, a trademark which is identical or indistinguishably similar to…
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Turkey’s Ministry of Science, Industry and Technology circulated a draft IP Code on the website of the Turkish Patent Institute (TPI) for the opinions of relevant stakeholders, which includes anyone who would like to comment, but chiefly Non-governmental Organizations, business sector associations, IP-focused associations and IP law firms on February 24, 2016.
The new IP Code that is being discussed consolidates the Turkish Decree-Laws on Trademarks, Patents, Industrial…
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