The Kick-off Meeting of the “Supporting Turkey for Enhancing Implementation and Enforcement of industrial property Rights” Project which will be carried out in cooperation of Turkish Patent Institute with the German International Legal Cooperation Institute is performed today at TPE.
At the beginning of the meeting, Prof. Dr. Habip ASAN, President of the Turkish Patent Institute, Ms. Karin FRIEHE, Judge at German Federal Patent Court and Member State Project Leader, Ms. Julie TRAPPE, Representative of the German International Legal Cooperation Institute, Mr. Michelle VILLANI, Head of Trade, Economy and Agriculture section of the EU Delegation to Turkey, Mr. Dirk TRÖNDLE from the German Embassy, Head of Economic Cooperation, Environment, Research and Technology Unit, Mr. Mustafa KÖKÇAM, Deputy Undersecretary of Ministry of Justice, Dr. Yavuz CABBAR, Deputy Undersecretary of Ministry of Industry and Trade, delivered their speeches.
The speakers expressed their expectations from this project that harmonization with the European acquis on industrial property rights will be strengthened after small deficits are removed. Having stated that twinning projects play a fundamental role in harmonization with EU acquis communataire, Prof. Dr. Habip ASAN pointed out on the statistics indicating the high percentage of projects operated in coordination with Germany. Strong, multi-faceted and long-standing historical and social relations between Turkey and Germany have an influence on this situation. As Germany is one of the exemplary models in the world in both legal and industrial property rights fields, high percentage of German-Turkish projects indicates the success of this Project.
After the opening remarks, experts participating in the project; Ms. Karin FRIEHE, Mr. Markus SCHNEIDER (Enforcement), Presiding Judge at District Court of Hamburg, Mr. Helmut HANNUS (Guidelines), Former Head of Jena Branch Office, German Patent and trademark Office, Dr. Wolfang TAUCHERT (Patent), Former Presiding Judge at the German Federal Patent Court, Ms. Gerlinde Winter (geographical indications), German Federal Patent Court Judge, Dr. Oliver SCHÖN (RTA), Judge at the District Court Munich I, presented information on their studies and their possible outcomes within the project.
Industrial property rights such as patents, trademarks, and designs enable companies to build up a reputation in the market, to gain advantages over their competitors through the quality of their products and through technical innovations, and gives them the opportunity to recover their investments. industrial property rights are important tools in competition.
Since 2005, negotiations in the field of intellectual property (Chapter 7) have been taking place between EU and Turkey within the framework of Turkey’s accession to EU. In that context, Turkey has been taking measures to increase the institutional capacity for implementing the EU acquis communautaire in this field. This project will constitute another important step in the EU-Turkey cooperation.
Full harmonisation of the Turkish IP rights system with the EU acquis communautaire is an essential topic in Turkey’s accession negotiations concerning Chapter 7. This project will aim to fine-tune the existing Turkish legislation and to increase the expert capacities of the actors involved in the protection and the enforcement of IP rights. Once the decision-taking procedures are aligned with the EU best practices, the additional effect will be an environment of higher-level protection of IP rights as well as a decrease in the workload of the already overloaded Turkish courts.
Furthermore, through the participation of all stakeholders, the project aims to raise the awareness on the importance of industrial property rights as a prerequisite for substantial economic investments and a vital pillar of a modern society.
In order to support Turkey’s efforts in this area, more than 50 high-ranking experts from the European Union, among them judges from the German Federal Supreme Court and the German Federal Patent Court, as well as members of the Office of Harmonization for the Internal Market (OHIM) will participate in the project activities during the implementation period of 13 months.
Within the framework of the project the examination guidelines of the Turkish Patent Institute on patents, trademarks and designs will be revised. These revised guidelines will be available in the Turkish Patent Institute’s internet homepage for interested stakeholders in order to ensure transparent and comprehensible decisions.
The second fundamental element of the program is a comprehensive training program in Ankara, Istanbul, and Izmir. In 16 conferences and workshops of several days on different subjects of industrial property rights, the following specialists will be addressed:
- trademark examiners
- Patent examiners
- Designs examiners
- IP Judges
- Lawyers, Patent and trademark Attorneys
- Representatives of stakeholders
The most important aspects of IP rights will be discussed in small groups of Turkish and European experts based on relevant cases during thematically successive workshops. The discussed cases will be reflected in the guidelines and are supposed to be useful for future reference. In order to enable an unbiased in-depth discussion, separate workshops for examiners and judges will be offered. There will be study visits, symposia for stakeholders and opportunities to consult German experts on current questions and new developments in the field of IP law.
In addition, customs, the police and other institutions will be integrated into the project through overlapping activities so that their interests will also be taken care of and public awareness for intellectual property rights will be raised.
The European Union allocates 1.2 Million Euros to this project. Turkish Patent Institute and the Ministry of Justice are also allocating considerable amounts as in-kind contribution. The implementation will be carried out through IRZ - German Foundation for International Legal Cooperation in collaboration with the Turkish Patent Institute, Ministry of Justice and the Justice Academy.