With the Communiqué on Maintenance of Commercial Books Not Related to the Accounting of the Business in Electronic Form (the “Communiqué”) published in the Official Gazette dated 14 February 2025, it has become mandatory for companies to keep their commercial books not related to the accounting of the business electronically as of July 1, 2025.
Books and Enterprises within the Scope of the Communiqué
The commercial books, which have been made mandatory to be kept…
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Protecting patent rights in a timely manner is crucial for original pharmaceutical product manufacturers, particularly in being informed of potential infringements before an infringing product enters the market.
However, information requests submitted by legal representatives of original drug marketing authorisation (MA) holders regarding the authorisation files of generic companies—who seek approval through an abridged application referencing the original pharmaceuticals—are…
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Executive Summary: Data Residency in Turkey – Q&A Format
Overview
1.1 General Personal Data
Q: Can personal data be transferred abroad?
A: Yes, but under specific conditions. Before June 1, 2024, personal data could be transferred abroad only if explicit consent was obtained or if a legal basis other than consent existed. These legal bases were outlined under Article 5 of the Data Protection Law (DPL). However, the applicability of these bases was limited due to the…
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Artificial intelligence (AI) technologies, as one of the fastest-developing and most widely debated fields today, provide significant benefits to individuals and society while also posing various risks in terms of personal data protection. Recently, the widely discussed DeepSeek has been subjected to review by the European Commission and relevant data protection authorities.
The Personal Data Protection Authority (“Authority”) has issued the following recommendations for…
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With the amendment made to Article 9 of the Personal Data Protection Law No. 6698 (“Law”), titled “Transfer of personal data abroad”, standard contracts have been introduced as one of the appropriate safeguards that data controllers and data processors may rely on for the transfer of personal data abroad. With the enactment of the law amendment on June 1, 2024 with a three-month transition period for cross-border data transfers, and the publication of the Regulation on the…
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The Higher Board recognised that stricter conditions apply to the limitation of goods and services for national applications compared to international applications filed via WIPO
The limitation applications rejected by the Trademarks Department were in accordance with the law and should have been accepted
The decision emphasises that parties should be encouraged to resolve disputes through amicable agreements
Background
The Trademarks Department of the Patent and Trademark…
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Within the context of the entry into force of Article 26 of the Industrial Property Code, there have been heated discussions as to whether the administrative revocation of trademarks is constitutional
An IP court applied to the Constitutional Court to annul the office’s authority to revoke trademarks before the office was able to use such authority
The Constitutional Court rejected the application due to the court's lack of jurisdiction and did not examine the…
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Within the context of the entry into force of Article 26 of the Industrial Property Code, there have been heated discussions as to whether the administrative revocation of trademarks is constitutional
An IP court applied to the Constitutional Court to annul the office’s authority to revoke trademarks before the office was able to use such authority
The Constitutional Court rejected the application due to the court's lack of jurisdiction and did not examine the…
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Although “plagiarism” is not defined under Law No. 5846 on Intellectual and Artistic Works (“LIAW”) it is widely accepted in Turkish law as the act of using and appropriating the intellectual or artistic work of another without the permission of the owner. Similarly, “inspiration”, which does not have a clear definition or criteria in the LIAW systematic, means the creation of a new and original work by being influenced by another work. While drawing inspiration from existing…
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In a follow-up to their post on the Class 46 blog about the 81st ICANN meeting, Mutlu Yıldırım Köse and Baran Güney explore domain name disputes and online enforcement in Türkiye.
The Role of TRABIS
TRABIS (the .tr Network Information System), established by the Turkish Information and Communication Technologies Authority (BTK), became operational on 14 September 2022 and undertook the management of .tr domain names.
Upon the introduction of TRABIS, the first-come…
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The defendant in a non-use revocation action argued that the pandemic was a force majeure event which had compelled it to cease using its trademark temporarily
The court disagreed, holding that the mark at issue, registered for personal care goods in Class 3, should have been used even more intensively during the pandemic
The pandemic will not, in itself, be accepted as a justified reason for non-use in revocation actions
After the covid-19 pandemic was declared globally…
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After long years of deliberation, the Agreement establishing the Unified Patent Court (“Agreement”) was accepted on majority of the European Union (EU) member states in 2013 and entered into force on 01 June 2023.
The Unified Patent Court (UPC) was envisaged as a common court for the member states party to the Agreement. And thus, the UPC became part of the judicial system of the member states party to the Agreement and was authorised to resolve disputes concerning European…
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