IKV, in cooperation with Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market (OHIM) and Turkish Patent Institute (TPI) and with the support of  the EU Delegation to Turkey, held a conference on “Trademarks and Designs Practices for Industry and Entrepreneurs” on the 7th April 2014 in Istanbul.

In his opening speech, IKV Chairman, Ömer Cihad Vardan, stressed the importance of the intellectual property rights for the industrialists, businessmen in particular and the large segments of the society in general. President Vardan also emphasised the necessity for Turkey to leap up to the group of high income countries from the group of middle income countries in order to reach its 2023 objectives. In that respect, Chairman Vardan underlined the fact that Turkey is in urgent need of increase its export share on value-added products.The conference mainly focused on topics such as the practices on Community Trademark and Community designs within the EU and gave comprehensive information on the registration, protection and prevention infringement of trademarks and designs within the framework of industrial property rights. The conference also focused on the identification and enforcement of new branding strategies and management of industrial property rights in Turkey. This conference successfully brought together the representatives of Turkish and the European institutions and organisations as well as the representatives of industry and private sector.

Chairman Vardan highlighted that most of the companies that cannot successfully brand their products, create new designs or the companies that do not sufficiently invest in innovation and research-development, inevitably become subject to global competitiveness. Chairman Vardan mentioned that the mere production of science and technology will not be sufficient to successfully compete at the global level; instead, what is needed the most is the effective protection of intellectual and patent rights. Chairman Vardan also emphasised the weaknesses of SMEs on branding and intellectual property rights; and stressed that the SMEs and individual entrepreneurs that do not have widespread knowledge on patents, trademarks, industrial designs and geographical signs, are not able to grow and develop further.

Chairman Vardan further reminded that the European Commission, in its 2013 Turkey’s Progress Report, advised Turkey to strengthen the cooperation between stakeholders and public institutions and to initiate various campaigns on the benefits of intellectual property rights in order to raise awareness among the society in general and business world in particular.

In this context, Chairman Vardan identified the main priorities as: raising the awareness of society on intellectual property rights; making necessary legal amendments on this subject by the government; implementation of these legal amendments; inclusion of Turkey to the new generation FTAs such as TTIP; and the adaptation of national companies to the new system based on the legal amendments.

In the conference, OHIM Turkey Project Coordinator, Sabina Rusconi gave two presentations entitled “IP at Glance: A Driver for Innovation” and “Trademarks and Designs: Alternatives or Complementary Options” respectively. Whilst focusing on the studies on IP and its contribution to EU economy and society; contributions of IPR-intensive industries to EU employment, GDP, trade, job creation and remuneration in the first presentation, Rusconi mainly focused on the importance and the role of the Community Trademark (CTM) and Registered Community Design (RCD) and the procedures surrounding the CTM and community design registration within the EU in her second presentation.

The Head of Trademark Department, Dr. Elif Betül Akın, in her presentation entitled “Trademarks and Designs in Turkey: Challenges and Opportunities” emphasised the importance of intellectual property rights and focused on the main indicators on trademarks and design rights in Turkey. Dr. Akın further discussed the strategic priorities for the development and strengthening of national intellectual rights plan and Turkey’s 2023 intellectual property vision.

In the second panel,  Member of Board of Directors of Destek Patent A.Ş., Ersin Dereligil gave a presentation entitled “Managing the Intellectual Property Assets for SMEs”. Dereligil gave particular emphasis to the frequently asked questions on the intellectual property rights by the SMEs and informed the participants on intellectual property assets, the role and the importance of asset portfolio for SME businesses, as well as the necessity of establishing an effective company policy and strategy on intellectual properties.

The Genel Director of Hispanitas, Luis de Guzman, in his presentation entitled “IP as an Asset and Prerequisite to be Competitive in the National and Global Marketplace”, stressed the importance of intellectual property on the protection of assets and recently developed trademarks. De Guzman also touched upon the essential requirement and absolute necessity of having a registered Community Trademark for the companies in order to protect the intellectual property rights of their products and secure their innovative models and designs that companies produce within the EU.

In the third and final panel of the conference, the Key Advisor at the Danish Trademark and Patent Office, Kenny Wright  gave a presentation entitled “IPR Protection – Your Responsibility”. In his presentation Wright mainly focused on the impact of IPR infringements on society and how right holders can protect their rights. In this context, he particularly emphasised the urgency of contacting local or national patent offices in the cases of fraudulent counterfeit activities and possibility of appealing to either civil or criminal courts.

In his presentation entitled “Trademarks and Design Practices for Industry and Entrepreneurs”, the Director of Intellectual Rights of Arçelik A.Ş., Sertaç Köksaldı  focused on the importance of having a registered trademark and industrial design for the companies; and underlined the substance of developing effective portfolio management strategies.

At the end of the Conference, the Director of Quality System and Intellectual Rights, Esin Çınar, gave a presentation entitled “Trademark Management”. Çınar stressed that branding is one of the most strategic investments of companies, and one of the leading ways to identify different products; and attention needs to be paid on issues concerning the marketing, communication and intellectual rights in the process or branding.