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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After years of discussions, the new draft IP Law – which is expected to be enacted this year – introduces a post-grant opposition system for national patent filings in Turkey.
The legislature is introducing a post-grant opposition system in order to bring Turkish law into line with the European Patent Convention system. However, the post-grant opposition system set out in the draft law has some small differences from the convention system.
Third parties may file an opposition…
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The draft IP Law introduces provisions to strengthen the protection of the rights of both patent applicants and patent owners (for further details please see “TPI finally publishes new draft law”).
The current Patent Decree-Law provides that a patent applicant benefits from all of the protection enjoyed by a patent owner. However, the decree-law sticks with this basic principle and does not go into detail. Therefore, the protection of patent applicants’ rights has become a…
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On February 24 2016, the Turkish Patent Institute (TPI) produced the new Draft Industrial Property Code. It was circulated for a period of consultation which finished on March 4 2016. It is expected that the draft code will be sent to the Council of Ministers within the next few weeks. The authorities are hopeful that it will come into force before the end of the year.
In order to become a part of the Customs Union, Turkey had to harmonise its national IP laws with EU…
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Mehmet Gün, senior partner at Gün + Partners, Istanbul, traverses the gaps in Turkish and continental civil procedure, where inefficient disclosure rules are choking an overloaded justice system arguably leading to double procedural standards and high budgetary costs for some EU member states
Turkey’s desire to join the European Union is well-known. Lesser known is the response of the EU policymakers to issues that arise from the same root cause as in the Turkish justice…
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