Exams to become a Turkish Patent and Trademark Attorney held on November 16, 2019

The first stage of the examinations, which take place in two stages, to become Turkish patent or trademark attorney were held on November 16, 2019.

The candidates took a multiple choice test of 60 questions and exam papers for measuring practical skills.

In order to become a Turkish patent or trademark attorney, the candidates are required to hold a four-years university degree. A graduation in a specific field, such as law or engineering, or an internship by a registered patent or trademark attorney is not required to take exams and become Turkish patent and trademark attorney.

The qualifying examinations generally cover the following subjects:

• National and international legislation and practices related to the intellectual and industrial property (80% of the questions by weight).
• The initial provisions of the Civil Law and the provisions of the law of persons, the provisions of the contract of attorney of the Law of Obligations, merchant, trade registry, trade name and business name, unfair competition provisions of the Commerce Law (20% of the questions by weight).

Specifically, the subjects of the examination for patent attorney candidates cover national and international laws and practices related to patents and utility models, national and international legislation and practices related to design, general and common issues related to industrial property law, and the subject of the examination for trademark attorney candidates cover national and international laws and practices related to trademarks and geographical indications, national and international legislation and practices related to design, general and common issues related to industrial property law.

The candidates, passing the first stage of the examinations, will take their vocational examinations, which are expected to be held in January 2020, at the next stage.

The qualifying examinations are held once every two years by the Turkish Patent and Trademark Office (TURKPATENT).

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The working conditions of the Turkish IP Academy specified by the newly published regulation

Implementing Regulation on Intellectual Property Academy (Regulation No. 30948) was published in the Turkish Official Gazette on November 14, 2019.

The Regulation regulates the issues related to training, consultancy, research and coordination activities carried out within the academy on intellectual property rights, fees charged for the activities and services rendered, secretariat services and other issues.

According to the Regulation, the Academy will be in charge of the following tasks:

• offering basic and specialized training programs in the field of intellectual property, including formal, distance and mixed theoretical and practical training,
• organizing domestic internship programs, search meetings, panels, conferences, symposiums, congresses and similar activities,
• conducting field researches,
• carrying out coordination and domestic cooperation activities,
• providing advices on IP matters,
• ensuring that the professional knowledge and skills of public and private sector employees in the field of intellectual property are established within the framework of international norms by making personnel certification in accordance with the national and international standards.

The Academy will be administered by a Board, members of which will be consisted of a representative from the Turkish Patent and Trademark Office, a representative from the General Directorate of Copyright, two university professors, one of whom is specialized on industrial property rights and the other of whom is specialized on the copyrights, one patent or trademark attorney, one sector representative working in the field of copyrights, one member appointed by the Supreme Court of Appeals and one judge working in the civil or criminal courts of intellectual and industrial rights.

The training centers, which will function as excutive branches of the Academy according to the Regulation, will be established within the body of the Turkish Patent and Trademark Office.

The training centers will be authorized to issue certificate or certificate of attendance to the eligible participants with or without examination, depending on the nature of the training and the conditions announced in advance. These centers will also publish educational materials, research reports, dissertations, scientific, legal or technical articles in the field of intellectual property in electronic and/or printed media and will launch a website for the public use for these purposes.

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Turkey withdrew its declaration under Article 14 (5) of Madrid Protocol

WIPO has announced that Turkey withdrew its declaration under Article 14(5) of the Protocol Relating to the Madrid Agreement Concerning the International Registration of Marks (“Madrid Protocol”). The withdrawal became effective on October 18, 2019.

As a result of the withdrawal, Turkey can be the subject of a subsequent designation in respect of any international registration, including international registrations effected before January 1, 1999, the date on which the Madrid Protocol entered into force with respect to Turkey.

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TURKPATENT updated the online patent search tool

Turkish Patent and Trademark Office (TURKPATENT) has made a long-awaited update on the patent search and file inspection tool on its website. The update has introduced a new interface and functionalities to the patent search and online file inspection tool.

One of the new features put into service by this update is the possibility to access to the patent documents and files by online. Thus, applicants, patent holders and third parties will be able to inspect the files and documents of the published patent applications and patents by online.

The users will also benefit from detailed search, advanced search, image viewing, and document export functions of the patent search tool.

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Turkish Patent and Trademark Office has published new examination guideline for trademarks

Turkish Patent and Trademark Office (TURKPATENT) has published a new examination guideline for trademarks, titled “Trademark Examination Guideline.”

The Guideline, which is a revised version of the Guideline issued in 2011, was prepared based on the decisions of the Board of Appeal of TURKPATENT, the decisions of the Turkish Intellectual Property Courts, the case-law of the Turkish Supreme Court. It also takes into consideration the decisions and practices of the European Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) and the case-law of the Court of Justice of the European Union. Thus, the Guideline clarifies many challenging issues with trademark examples in view of the decisions within the scope of the Turkish and European law and practices.

The Guideline covers many aspects of trademarks and guides examiners, applicants and attorneys for evaluating the registrability of the trademarks under the Turkish Industrial Property Law. Specifically, the Guideline provides general approaches regarding identicalness, confusingly similarity, descriptiveness, and distinctiveness issues, non-traditional trademarks, hashtag trademarks and many hot topics.

The Guideline is not a legislative or regulatory document and thus does not have a binding nature, rather remains a document of practice covering various examples and scenarios in the face of the challenging trademark cases.

TURKPATENT states that the Guideline is not a static but dynamic document changing with the new laws, regulations and the case-law in both Turkey and European Union. Therefore, it is stated that the document will be regularly updated to comply with the most recent developments on trademark matters.

The Guideline will be extremely valuable for the examiners and trademark practitioners in Turkey, as the Turkish Industrial Property Law, which came into force in early 2017, has required the trademark examiners and practitioners to develop new approaches on trademark matters.

Download Link: Turkish Trademark Examination Guideline (2019)

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