Intellectual Property Rights in Turkey
As a member to the WIPO and a signatory to the major Intellectual Property related Agreements including Paris Convention, Patent Cooperation Treaty, Berne Convention, Trademark Law Treaty Protocol Relating to the Madrid Agreement Concerning the International Registration of Marks and as well as TRIPS Agreement, Intellectual Property rights in Turkey are fairly well protected as far as the legislation is concerned. Accordingly, researchers can safely conduct their activities and invent new products and/or brands whereas investors can safely invest and support promising projects and start-ups, with the knowledge that their rights with regards to intellectual property is safe and protected under the law.
Issues in Practice
While the legislative framework for Intellectual Property rights is quite extensive, Turkey is nonetheless one of the hubs for the production of counterfeit goods. This is mainly due to cheap labor and materials available and a developed textile industry. According to OECD reports, Turkey’s market share of counterfeit and pirated goods is around 3.3% globally, which constitutes a serious health and safety hazard for the consumers, especially for medical, food and cosmetic products and goods. You can find detailed information regarding such intellectual property issues in our published articles regarding counterfeit products here (also available at Mondaq). For detailed information regarding copyright claims please refer here.