I INTRODUCTION TO THE PRODUCT LIABILITY FRAMEWORK
In Turkey, there is no specific law on product liability but the provisions related to product liability are set out within various basic codes in Turkey: the Law of Obligations No. 6098 and the new Turkish Consumer Protection Law No. 6502 (the TCP Law), which was published in the Official Gazette on 28 November 2013 and entered into force on 28 May 2014.
In addition to the above codes, the Law on the Preparation and…
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In a decision rendered in January 2015, the Turkish Patent Institute (TPI) has recognised that the JAVA marks are well known in the software sector, and concluded that there was a risk that the application for JAXA (No 2013/97550) could take unfair advantage of, or be detrimental to, the reputation or distinctive character of the JAVA marks.
The application for JAXA, which covered all the services in Class 42 of the Nice Classification, was published in the Official Trademark…
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A global pharmaceutical company filed a patent infringement action against a local generic pharmaceutical company on the grounds that the generic company had been granted an abridged marketing authorisation referring to the original pharmaceutical’s dossier. The generic company also applied for inclusion on the Social Security Institution (SSI) reimbursement list. The originator company claimed that its original pharmaceutical was protected via a patent, and thus there was a…
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The director of the Turkish Patent Institute recently gave a speech on the draft Patent Law, which amends certain clauses of the existing Patent Decree-Law. He stated that the aim of the draft patent law is to enable Turkey to develop its own pharmaceutical patents, to reduce dependence on imports and to harmonise national law with international agreements.
While the draft Patent Law is still pending on Parliament’s agenda, the Constitutional Court recently handed down a…
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General Assembly of the Civil Chambers of the Court of Appeal, 2013/11-1138, 2014/6 The Court ruled that website operators will be held liable where the seller whose products are sold through the operator’s website infringes another party’s trade mark. Analysis of the Recent Decision of Turkish Court of Appeal There are no specific regulations governing the liability of online website sale operators in case the primary seller whose products are sold through the online sale…
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On June 22 2004 Turkey implemented the Bolar exemption by adding Article 75/1(f) to the Patent Decree-Law (551). Accordingly, regulatory acts such as obtaining marketing authorisation and conducting experiments and tests necessary to obtain marketing authorisations are exempt from the scope of patent rights.
The purpose of the Bolar exemption should treated carefully in order to protect the delicate balance between the parties’ legitimate interests. The patent protection term…
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The Re-examination and Evaluation Board (REEB) of the Turkish Patent Institute (TPI) recently found that prior identical trademark registrations which were less than five years old did not provide the owner with vested rights in favour of a new application, as the registrations were still vulnerable to cancellation (Decision 2015-M-11090, November 26 2015). The REEB accepted the opponent’s appeal and rejected the contested trademark application.
Facts
On June 28 2013 the…
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The draft patent law amending the Decree Law numbered 551 Pertaining to the Protection of the Patent Rights (“Patent Decree Law”) is currently the hot button of patent rights in Turkey.
Since Turkey adhered to the European Patent Convention (“EPC”) in 2000, there is a bifurcated system differing for both national and European patents validated in Turkey. In order to harmonize the procedures and eliminate the differences, a draft patent law amending the Patent Decree Law…
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Turkey has been a member of European Patent Convention (“EPC”) since 1 November 2000. European Patents, granted by European Patent Office, are validated in Turkey without further examination and protected as a national patent.
The competence of EPO in patentability assessment is also respected by Turkish Supreme Court and it has been the case law to take the patentability assessment of the EPO into consideration during national invalidation cases, not only related to European…
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1. Copyright Subsistence
1.1 What are the requirements for copyright to subsist in a work?
The protection of copyrights is regulated under the Law of Literary and Artistic Works No. 5846 (Law No. 5846).
According to Law No. 5846, an intellectual or artistic creation is qualified as a ‘work’ subject to copyright protection if:
it is original, namely if it is the result of independent, creative effort by the author (this is a subjective condition); and
it falls under one of…
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Under the Turkish Trademark law, there is in principle no ban on the registration of the three-dimensional (3D) shape of goods and/or their packaging. In fact, such trademarks are mentioned in the list of registrable signs and are subject to the same conditions as other types of trademarks. Article 5 of the Decree Law No 556 Pertaining to the Protection of Trademarks states as follows:
“Provided that it is capable of distinguishing the goods and services of one undertaking…
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Intellectual Property (IP) rights are intangible assets that are either the creations of minds or are chosen or created in the form of distinctive signs. Among IP rights, trademarks and copyrights stand out as the most important and relevant for use by law firms. Trademarks form the legal basis for protecting a law firm’s brand, while copyrights form the legal basis for protecting its knowledge. Trademarks provide an exclusive ownership and protection perpetually as long as…
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