Trademark infringement on the internet

In an era where every transaction can take place through the Internet, trademark holders would like to immediately prevent each and every illegal use in the blink of an eye.

Unfortunately, in Turkey, the law protecting IP rights has not developed fast enough to protect trademark holders’ rights in every aspect of life. Therefore, although the Trademark Decree Law provides the same protection to trademarks in cyberspace, no specific measures defined in law apply in order to prevent infringing acts in a short period of time.

While the Trademark Decree Law accepts the existence of trademark infringement when counterfeit goods are sold through a website; or when the trademark is displayed on the web page or used as a domain name, code, key code or similar, neither civil nor the criminal provisions provide an immediate solution to cease the illegal use of a trademark on the Internet.

In other words, the law does not provide a solution equivalent to a raid, where the infringing acts are immediately ceased. As a result of this, trademark owners need to start a criminal or civil lawsuit, and wait until the end of the judgment (more than 18 months) to have the illegal use ceased.