INTA Partners with Turkish Justice Academy for Judicial Workshop in Istanbul

Earlier this month, INTA collaborated with the Turkish Justice Academy to host the Association’s first judicial workshop in Istanbul, Türkiye. Istanbul, a city that was the capital of four empires, is a living example of the coexistence and confluence of knowledge, culture, and identity, and as Judge Carlos de Melo Marinho concludes: “Talking about trademarks is talking about identity.”

Bekur Altun, President of the Justice Academy of Türkiye, opened the workshop with a reminder that celebrating 102 years of the Turkish Republic also means celebrating its contributions to science, arts, technology, and literature, and its longstanding history of protection of intellectual property (IP) rights: notably, that the country’s first trademark laws date back to the Ottoman Empire.

INTA CEO Etienne Sanz de Acedo, in turn, emphasized the importance of the Association’s cooperation with and support of the worldwide IP judiciary, which plays a vital role in the advancement of IP laws to address and regulate the proliferation of IP violations, especially in the digital and online environments.

The workshop brought together speakers from the Turkish judiciary and academia, alongside judges from the EU and Switzerland, to compare regulations and jurisprudence on select topics in each region.

The first session delved into cases that focused on the protection of well-known and nontraditional marks. Led by Andrej Stec, Référendaire of the General Court of the EU, and Ata Durak of the Ankara Regional Court of Justice in Türkiye, the session highlighted problems created by the alarming rise in bad-faith trademark registrations.

In the following session, speakers focused on the controversial treatment of intermediary liability in trademark and IP violations, sparking lively discussions with the audience. Speakers Hugo van Heemstra (Commercial Court of The Hague, the Netherlands) and Zelia Ince (Third Intellectual and Industrial Rights Court, Ankara, Türkiye) led a dynamic exchange on questions of procedure.

The third session covered methodologies for calculating damages and ensuring fair compensation in trademark infringement cases. Speakers Carlos de Melo Marinho (IP and Competition Chamber of the Lisbon Court of Appeal, Portugal) and Dr. Yasemin Yücesoy Yilmaz (11th Civil Chamber of the Court of Cassatio, Türkiye) compared the process of damage calculation in IP matters between their respective jurisdictions, leading to an interesting debate about the options of changing the calculation method in trials.

Finally, David Aschmann, Federal Administrative Court St. Gallen, Switzerland, and Funda Dogan Akdere, 44th Civil Chamber of the Istanbul Regional Court of Justice, Türkiye, engaged in debate with members of the audience over the cumulative application of IP and unfair competition law provisions according to EU, Swiss, and Turkish laws, with a spotlight on INTA’s research to establish international practices on this issue.

The workshop underscored the need to adapt trademark law to meet the challenges posed by globalization and the accelerating shift to ecommerce. It emphasized the pivotal role of the judiciary in driving this transformation, as well as the value of sharing expertise and best practices among members of the international judiciary community.

The group of more than 50 attending judges and academic experts expressed interest in INTA’s ongoing research into some of the topics discussed, including best practices for calculating damages and the debate over the supremacy of cumulative protection under IP and unfair competition laws.

The animated discussions and debates highlighted the genuine interest of the Turkish judiciary in exploring international approaches to these critical issues and created a highly interactive, intellectually inspiring atmosphere for the workshop. Additionally, the international participants were treated to the famed Turkish hospitality, which went beyond the impressive execution of the workshop to include a gala dinner with views of the Istanbul skyline and the Bosporus Strait. INTA would like to thank the Justice Academy of Türkiye for a highly successful event and an unforgettable stay in the wonderful city of Istanbul.

Although every effort has been made to verify the accuracy of this article, readers are urged to check independently on matters of specific concern or interest.

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