Recently, Supreme Court of Turkey cancelled some provisions of IP Laws.
The problem is because actually IP laws in Turkey mainly regulated by Decree Laws. In 1995, once Turkey enters into Customs Union, the Government had to pass IP laws in few days. There was no time to wait for whole general assembly to decide on this. Therefore all EU regulations have been translated into Turkish and put into force as Decree Law. Since then, there have been many rumors about these Decree Laws but this did not change their status.
But recently, Supreme Court of Turkey cancelled several provisions in Trademark, Design and Patent Decree Laws. Main reason was Turkish Constitution article 91. The provision clearly states that personal rights or property rights cannot be limited by Decree Laws. But as it is also known, patent, trademark rights are accepted as property law. And these decree laws limit property rights, because Decree Law allow plaintiffs to cancel or invalidate such rights under certain circumstances. Therefore Supreme Court cancelled these provision one by one. After these decisions, Government pushed the button again and started to work on the IP Law package.
Thus now we are waiting soon this package to be accepted by Parliament as a Law, instead of Decree Law.
(Source: Ekdial – Attorneys at Law / www.ekdial.av.tr)
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