Solution suggestions to Turkey's counterfeit goods problem in terms of legislation and customs practices

According to current OECD reports, Turkey is in the 3rd place after China and Hong Kong in the counterfeit goods production and its international trade. In order to understand the trade of counterfeit goods, firstly intellectual property rights are explained in detail. The releted regulations of the Turkish Customs Law and Turkish Customs Code, which have been implemanted for protection of IPR at customs where counterfeit goods and international trade are encountered, are also explained. It has been observed that the regulations regarding IPR in the customs legislation are sufficient to the extent that they meet the requirements of the relevant international agreements and are compatible with the EU legislation. The question that comes to mind after these findings is, if the problem does not arise from the legislation, could it be due to the implementation?. Thus, in order to identify the problems regarding the implementation, interviews were conducted with customs personnel to understand the customs administration's mechanism of protection regarding IPR and to obtain their opinions on what can be done to overcome the counterfeit goods problem. The semi-constructed interview method was used in the interviews. Three main themes have emerged according to the obtained data. These are the main themes that corruption, supply and demand of counterfeit goods, and the trade of counterfeit goods are unlikely to be prevented by customs. In addition to these, findings regarding education and technology use, which were only mentioned by some participants and did not constitute a theme but were considered important by us, were also obtained. According to the statements of the participants, significant successes have been achieved in the fight against corruption at customs. However, the corruption that occurs in customs is not caused by the administration itself, but primarily by the attitudes of lawyers, who are the authorized representatives of the rights holders. Counterfeit goods are not only a problem when crossing borders, they are also a problem when they exist in the domestic market. Customs are units that work as border control points. But every item passing through customs cannot be checked. Therefore, there will be leakage. In order to deal with this problem, it is extremely important to educate customs personnel and consumers about the economic and ethical problems created by counterfeit goods. Also technology can be used by the customs administration, right holders and consumers in the detection of counterfeit goods. Controlling the border alone is not enough for effective protection. In order to overcome this problem and eliminate the widespread trade in the domestic market, the dynamics of the demand for and production of counterfeit goods should be understood and steps should be taken in this direction.