Allegations of cybersquatting by trademark holders continued to rise in 2008, with a record 2,329 complaints filed under the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP), a quick and cost-effective dispute resolution procedure administered by the WIPO Arbitration and Mediation Center. This represented an 8% increase over 2007 in the number of generic and country

A new statute amending the Decree Law numbered 556 on Protection of Trademarks was enacted by the Grand National Assembly. The statute aims to avoid loopholes likely to occur after the Constitutional Court’s decision abolishing some of the articles of the Decree Law numbered 556. The statute set forth the scope of the rights arising

Registration of trademarks by representatives is of paramount importance as it may be problematic at the end of the relationship. Predicting such problems beforehand, the Decree Law on Protection of Trademarks in Article 8/2 disallows representatives from registering the trademarks of which they are representatives, agents, or distributors. This article reads as follows: “Upon opposition

Turkish legislation on the protection of patents, industrial designs, and trademarks is set to change. All procedures and transactions pertaining to basic intellectual property rights are set forth in Decree Laws numbered 551, 554, and 556, all of which became effective suddenly in 1995 after heavy pressure from the EU. Because the legislation entered into

Bad faith applications constitute a large part of the applications in the Official Trademark Bulletin published by the Institute every month and delivered to subscribers. The grounds for refusal of an application are stipulated in Articles 7 and 8 of the Decree Law no: 556 on Protection of Trademarks. Within such articles, no specific reference

Turkey’s preeminent media giant DOGAN Holding lost two domain names of hurriyet.net and milliyet.org upon panel decision of WIPO. In hurriyet.net case, the media giant claimed that Hurriyet (a Turkish word meaning liberty, freedom, or independence) is the most distinctive element and title of its principal publication and is the name by which it is, and has for many years, been

The Turkish Patent Institute released a list of criteria which will be considered in evaluating notoriety claims in trademark cases. A statement made via the Institute’s official website suggested that the Institute was charged with the duty of determining and applying the bases for the level of notoriety of trademarks in accordance with relevant legislation.

According to the Turkish Patent Institute, the number of patent applications increased as compared to 2006. In 2006, there were 5165 patent applications both domestic and foreign, 49 % more than in the previous year, while there were 6189 patent applications in 2007, nearly 20 % more than in 2006. Germany was the country of