Economic Development Foundation realised a panel entitled “Intellectual Property Rights and Personal Data in Digital World” in cooperation with American Business Forum in Turkey (AmCham Turkey) and Esin Attorney Partnership on 19 November 2018.

While AmCham Turkey Board of Director and IBM General Manager Defne Tozan delivered the opening speech, Senior Associate Mine Güner and Senior Associate Can Sözer from Esin Attorney Partnership, along with Personal Data Protection Board Expert Cennet Alas Şekerbay participated in as panellists.

During the panel moderated by IKV Vice Chairman Prof. Halûk Kabaalioğlu, Senior Associate Mine Güner from Esin Attorney Partnership scrutinised whether intellectual property right could be granted to the ever-evolving artificial intelligence. While mentioning autonomous robots such as Sophia, she touched upon the debates on whether the right of intellectual property for the works created by artificial intelligence should be granted to the software developer, the person who uses the software or to the robot itself. She noted that no country has adequate laws regulating artificial intelligence as yet and that the whole world has a hard time keeping up with technology.

Taking floor following Senior Associate Mine Güner, Senior Associate Can Sözer stated that personal information of consumers is transferred to third parties, whether willingly or unwillingly, through smart devices, smart toys and cookies stored in computers through websites. He stated that legal validity of hundreds of pages long terms of services is highly questionable as they are usually not read by the individuals and hence they consent for their data to transfer abroad most of the time not knowing their data will be processed. While citing the legal sanctions foreseen by Personal Data Protection Law with the law number 6698 (KVKK) in case of data infringements, he passed on some advice against data infringement for companies and individuals.

The last panellist Personal Data Protection Board Expert Cennet Alas Şekerbay delivered a speech on the personal data protection in Turkey and compliance with the EU. Şekerbay noted that intellectual property and personal data intertwined for the first time in 2008 through Promusicae/Telefónica case carried by CJEU, as a precedent. Additionally, she said that personal data protection derived from the Article 8 ^“right to respect for one's "private and family life^” of ECHR and that it is one of the fundamental rights and freedoms granted under Article 20 “right to respect for one's private life” of Turkish Constitution. Lastly, while giving information on KVKK and GDPR, Şekerbay expressed that despite the differences between two regulations, Turkey is carrying on works in converging KVKK and GDPR.