When trademark protection is not enough

01-02-2013

Isik Ozdogan and Ezgi Baklaci

There comes a time when trademark registrations are not enough to protect a company from infringement.

There comes a time when trademark registrations are not enough to protect a company from infringement.

As everyone knows, best-selling products that are sold under well-known trademarks are always targets, and clever infringers can always find a confusing loophole to exploit and thereby skirt around the scope of a trademark protection. In cases in which the infringer does not use a company’s trademark and the company does not own any design registration for the package, the case should be evaluated under the unfair competition rules. In recent years, the Turkish courts have rendered many promising decisions on this last point.

The unfair competition rules, as defined in the Turkish Commercial Code (TCC), have been considered to be life-saving by businesses, especially when their infringed-upon rights are not protected under a trademark or design registration.


trademark protection, TCC, Calgon, Nivea Soft, Danino

WIPR