Turkey’s first official diagnosis of COVID-19, which is considered to have begun in China’s Whuan city in December 2019 and which has spread to millions worldwide in the following months, was announced on 11 March 2020. Following the first case reported in Turkey and basically due to sudden increase in the demand for products such as masks, disinfectants, detergents; a direct increase has also been observed in the supply of counterfeit products to the market, which are…
»
1. Are there specific measures taken at the courthouses due to COVID-19?
YES. The courthouses across the country are open and active – yet;
As per the decisions of the Directorate of Administrative Affairs of the Presidency, the public employees – which covers judges, prosecutors and further courthouse personnel - who are pregnant, taking breastfeeding leave, disabled, over 60 years old (except managers), or those having a chronic disease, will be deemed on administrative…
»
THE FIRST DETAILED INFORMATION WAS PROVIDED REGARDING THE POST-GRANT OPPOSITION SYSTEM BEFORE THE EUROPEAN PATENT OFFICE (“EPO”)
FICPI-Turkey held the ninth of its traditional roundtable meetings at Turkish Patent and Trademark Office (“Türk Patent”) on 13 December 2019. The meeting was moderated by Selin Sinem Erciyas, who is the Vice President of the Board of Directors of FICPI-Turkey and Serkan Özkan, who is an Intellectual Property Expert at Türk Patent. The post-grant…
»
Following the enactment of The Law on Amendment of Certain Laws No. 7226 (“Law”), which entered into force upon publication in the Official Gazette dated 26 March 2020, the terms determined as per the Industrial Property Code (“IP Code”), applied either by the Turkish Patent and Trademark Office (“Office”) or before the relevant courts as statute of limitations for filing lawsuits, has been suspended.
As per the Law, all terms suspended for the period between March 13, 2020…
»
It has been three years since the Industrial Property Law, which combined different Decree Laws on specific IP rights, came into force. The fourth book of the Law introduces relatively new provisions regarding the patent system in Turkey that bring the national law into line with the European Patent Convention (EPC). Although it is too early for the implications of the new law to have come to light, working requirements and compulsory licensing remain the most questioned…
»
The new IP Law (the “Law”) numbered 6769 abolished the provisions on “the use requirement of patents,” and “the evidence of use” of the Decree Law Pertaining to the Protection of Patent Rights. The Law now focuses on the requirements of use for patents within the provision of a Compulsory License.
Accordingly, a patent owner must make use of the patented invention within three years following publication of its granted decision in the Official Bulletin (‘the Bulletin’) or…
»
The supply of pharmaceutical products to Turkey via the named patient programme (the “NPP”) is one of the exceptional importation regimes for pharmaceutical products. Where a pharmaceutical product is not granted marketing authorisation in Turkey, but patients are in need of it, it can be supplied via this special route. The entities that are authorised to import pharmaceuticals within the scope of the NPP are the Turkish Pharmacists’ Association (the “TEB”) and the Ibn-i…
»
Although ex parte injunctions are legally available, are quite rare in Turkish Patent Law practice. The IP Courts almost always reject requests for ex parte injunctions, preferring to evaluate the alleged infringement only after hearing both parties. However, in 2019, the Turkish IP Court unexpectedly granted a request for an ex parte injunction, due to the urgent nature of the matter.
The request for this ex parte injunction was filed against a company in Argentina. The…
»
Discovery of evidence and actions for determination of evidence are separately regulated under the Civil Procedural Law. Discovery of evidence is a preliminary step taken before any action on the merits, and it only serves to discover and record the evidence that may be relevant to an ongoing or future action on the merits.
It must be emphasised that unlike the US and UK systems, there is no full and frank disclosure procedure under Turkish civil law. In other words, the…
»
Since Turkey’s inclusion as a member of the EPC, a hot topic has been the enforcement or invalidity of Turkish validation of European Patent(s) (“EP”) while proceedings before the European Patent Office (the “EPO”) are pending.
Once an EP is validated in Turkey, it becomes a national patent three months after its first granted decision by the Examination Board of the EPO. For EPs, the Turkish Patent and Trademark Office (the “TPMO”) acts only as a procedural agency. Thus, the…
»
In 2018, the Istanbul IP Court decided on a generic pharmaceutical company’s damages claim based on an unjust PI, in what appears to be the first decision of its kind by the Turkish IP Courts within the pharmaceutical sector. The dispute between an originator firm and a generic firm derived from an infringement claim. The Court had issued a PI, which was lifted after 13 months based on the findings of an expert’s report, which found that no infringement had been made. The…
»
FICPI-Turkey arranged the seventh of its traditional roundtable meetings in September, this time focusing on the trade mark similarity concept for the assessment of likelihood of confusion and the approach of the Turkish Patent and Trademark Office, Türk Patent, and the Courts.
Ms. Gökçe İzgi, a member of the Board of Directors of FICPI-Turkey, moderated the meeting accompanied by Mr. Türkay Alıca, who is a Retired Judge of Civil Courts for Intellectual and Industrial…
»
