The New Turkish Industrial Property Code (“the IP Code”) entered into force on January 10, 2017.
The IP Code replaces the Decree-laws pertaining to the protection of trade marks, patents, geographical indications and designs, all of which date back to 1995, by bringing all those rights together within the ambit of a single Code.
Among other reforms, the trademark chapter includes changes which achieve greater compliance with the relevant European Union directives. The major…
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The long-awaited Industrial Property Code (“the IP Code”) has entered into force as of today, being published in the Official Gazette.
The IP Code replaces the Decree-Laws pertaining to the protection of Trademarks, Patents, Geographical Indications and Industrial Designs, by unifying them into a single code. The Code was prepared to provide compliance with recent developments in EU IP Law, to restore the gaps due to the decisions of the Constitutional Court annulling various…
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Legislative framework and causes of action
Turkey is a party to most major international treaties relating to intellectual property, including the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights and the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property. Turkey is also a member of international organisations such as the World Trade Organisation that have a connection with intellectual property.
At national level, Decree Law 556 Pertaining…
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Due to its location in the worldwide trade route, Turkey has a vital role in the fight against counterfeiting. The European Union and the Turkish government are therefore working together to increase training for Turkish customs officials and are looking to involve IP rights (IPR) holders wherever possible.
The latest customs training project organised by the Turkish Ministry of Customs and Trade (MoCT) in cooperation with the European Union involves a number of activities in…
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On October 6 2016, the Turkish Patent Institute (TPI) has been appointed as an International Searching Authority (ISA) and International Preliminary Examining Authority (IPEA) under the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) during the 56th series of Meetings of the Assemblies of the Member States of WIPO.
The process was started with the application of TPI filed in March 2016 before the WIPO and first the advice of the PCT Committee for Technical Cooperation was sought. During the…
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The Ankara Third Civil Court of Intellectual and Industrial Property Rights recently ruled on the confusing similarity between the well-known trademark 8X4 and the trademark FASHION 4X4. The court cancelled the decision issued by the Turkish Patent Institute (TPI), which concluded that the trademarks 8X4 and FASHION 4X4 were not confusingly similar under Article 8/1(b) of Decree-Law 556 on the Protection of Trademarks.
FactsA company operating in the cosmetics sector applied…
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Large inventor companies that rightfully obtain patents for their inventions often face a number of invalidation actions. Alternatively, the threat of infringement may be such as to require the patent holder to file infringement actions against companies whose products may infringe its patent. The two occasionally come together, with the allegedly infringing generic company filing an invalidation action against the patent holder in response to an infringement action; commonly…
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The draft Industrial Property Law in Turkey was passed by the main and sub commissions of the Science, Industry and Technology Ministry with minor amendments on May 5 2016. As shared in the issue of May 25 2016, one of the most debated issues was the international exhaustion principle, accepted for any kind of IP rights.
Another much debated issue of the draft law is about compulsory licensing provisions in the patent part of the draft law.
The Patent Decree Law in force also…
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I. INTRODUCTION
In a landmark decision, Diamond Kuyumculuk Ticaret Limited Şirketi v. Med-Art Sağlık Hizmetleri ve Kuyumculuk Sanayi ve Limited Şirketi (the “BLUEDIAMOND decision”),¹ the General Assembly of the Civil Chambers of the Court of Appeals of Republic of Turkey found a likelihood of confusion between two trademarks, each covering, inter alia, jewelry and clock goods and design services, based only on the common use of the word “diamond,” which is inarguably…
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On February 24 2016, the Ministry of Science, Industry and Technology circulated the draft IP Code on the website of Turkish Patent Institute (TPI). Having passed through various informal and formal consultation stages, the draft IP Code is now in its final enactment stage before the Turkish Parliament and expected to enter into force before the end of 2016.
The draft IP code will replace the decree-laws pertaining to protection of trade marks, patents, geographical…
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A new Turkish intellectual property (IP) code has been touted since the mid-2000s and although several drafts have been prepared, none of them have been enacted despite some changes made in the legislation already in force. Finally, this year, the Draft IP Code, a single code covering trademarks, geographical indications, designs, utility models, and patents, was prepared.On February 24, 2016, The Ministry of Science, Industry and Technology opened the Draft Code for public…
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A trademark application consisting of a 3D multi-visual representation of the famous Absolut vodka bottle filed for Class 33 alcoholic beverages was initially rejected by the Turkish Patent Institute (TPI) on absolute grounds, as the application was found devoid of distinctive character under Article 7(a) of Trademark Decree Law 556.
In response to an appeal, the TPI board held that even though there were no sufficient grounds to declare the application inherently…
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