The scope of protection of trademark right in Turkish and European Law

In article 9 of the Decree Law Pertaining to the Protection of Trademarks numbered 556, the scope of the rights arising from the trademark registration is regulated. According to this, it is determined in this article that the trademark owner is exclusively the holder of the rights arising from the trademark registration and in this scope, the acts that the trademark owner could request to be prevented are listed as three clauses. Afterwards, in paragraph 2 of the said article, the acts that are accepted in scope of paragraph 1 of the article and which could therefore be forbidden are listed as five clauses, which are not numerus clausus according to the doctrine. In the last paragraph, it is determined that the rights stated in the article could be used following the registration of the trademark, because the rights arising from the trademark could be alleged against third parties only after the publication of the registration of the trademark. There are situations where the trademark owner can not intervene or prevent the use of his trademark and in some cases, the protection arising from the trademark registration is limited or has ended by itself. First, in some cases the use of the trademark by third parties is accepted as legal use and it is determined that such uses do not constitute trademark infringement. The exception of the trademark right stated in article 12 of the Decree Law, the right of using the trademark in dictionaries and reference works stated in article 10 and the principle of exhaustion of rights stated in article 13 are the most important and essential of these cases. Looking in the other aspect, in case of the realization of the other limitative cases such as the fact that the trademark is not protected due to non-use, the fact that the protection of the trademark is removed due to the cancellation of the trademark, the end of the trademark right and the loss of right due to remaining silent, the prescription or granting an exclusive license, it is accepted that the trademark owner does not have a right arising from the trademark registration and consequently a protection anymore.Key Words1. Trademark protection2. Protection scope3. Rights arising from registration4. Exception of protection5. Cases which do not create infringement