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Infringement of Trademark Rights
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Att. Ceyda Buyukoral
Decree Law no 556 pertaining to the Protection of Trademarks
(“Decree Law no 556”), article 61 and the following articles regulate
the provisions with regard to infringement of trademark rights.
Act of Infringement and Its Penalty Clauses
Article 61 of Decree Law no 556 regulates the conditions of
infringement of trademark rights. According to article 61, following
circumstances shall be considered as infringement of a trademark
right.
i) violations of Article 9, which regulates the rights arising from
trademark registration,
ii) use of the identical or confusingly similar trademark without
the consent of the proprietor of the trademark,
iii) in spite of being aware or reasonably expected to be aware that
a mark is plagiarized; selling, distributing or putting the goods
into commercial use or a place in the custom territory or keep-
ing them in possession for commercial purposes,
iv) to expand the scope of rights acquired by a trade mark license
contract or to transfer them to third parties.
Penalty provisions are stipulated under Article 61/A of Decree
Law no 556. Accordingly, those who produce or sell or put into com-
mercial market the goods, infringing protected rights of trademark pro-
prietor, shall be sentenced to imprisonment between one and three
years and pay a judicial fine up to twenty thousand days.
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Article of January 2012