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4 Turk. Com. L. Rev. 3 (2018)

handle is hein.journals/turkclr4 and id is 1 raw text is: The Use of the Genuine Right Ownership Principle in Combating Trademark Squatters by UGUR AKTEKIN and HANDE HANQAR QELIK* ABSTRACT As in many jurisdictions, it is quite often the case in Turkey that certain entities -known as 'trademark squatters'- search for foreign trademarks that are not yet registered in Turkey and then register those trademarks in their own name in order to sell them or disrupt the legitimate business of the genuine owner of the trademark. Turkish Trademark Law provides various legal tools in combating against such entities and one of them is the principle of 'enuine right ownership'. Turkish case law has developed over recent decades with respect to the principle ofgenuine right ownership and it is fair to say that the rights of the genuine owner of a trademark are strongly protected, provided that prior rights or the badfaith of the trademark squatter are sufficiently established by the supporting evidence. The main principle under the Turkish trademark system is that in order to obtain trademark rights on a certain sign,' it must be registered in accordance with the Turkish Industrial Property Code (the IP Code) No. 6769 with theTurkish Patent andTrademark Offices (the Office). Indeed, Article 7(I) of the IP Code states that 'protection for a trademark under this Law is obtained by registration' and Article 7(2) states that 'the rights granted to registration belong exclusively to the trademark owner'. Accordingly, under the IP Code it is explicitly set forth that in order for a trademark * UgurAktekin is apartner in Gun + Partners and he is the co-head of the Intellectual Property Practise Group. Hande Hangar (elik is also a partner in Gin + Partners. i The term 'sign' used here covers all possible signs, i.e. words, including personal names, or designs, letters, numerals, colours, the shape of goods or of the packaging of goods, or sounds etc. that are capable of registering as trademarks. 2 The Industrial Property Code (IP Code) No. 6769 entered into force on January Jo, 2017. Before the enactment of IP Code, Turkish Trademark Law had been regulated under Decree Law Pertaining to the Protection of Trademarks Number 556 (Decree Law No. 56) since 1995. While IP Code introduced some important changes strengthening the trademark protection, most of the provisions remained the same. The provisions regulating the genuine right ownership principle, which is discussed in this article, are the same both in Decree Law No.556 and in the IP Code. So the case law obtained during the term of Decree Law No.556 is still applicable. For more information about the IP Code please see http://gun.av.tr/tr/new-ip-code- enters-into-force-2o17-will-be-the-year-of-ip-rights/. 3 TheTurkish Patent and Trademark Office is the new official name adopted by the IP Code for Turkish Patent Institute. The official abbreviation of the Turkish Patent and Trademark Office is 'TurkishPatent' as per the IP Code but in this Article we will call it simply 'the Office'. More information regarding the functions of the Office in terms of trademark opposition can be found in <http://www.turkpatent.govtr/ TurkPatent/Plang=en>. ©208 TURKISH COMMERCIAL LAW REVIEW, Vol 4, No. i, Summer 20I8 3

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