What is Intellectual Property Right Violation?

The illegal use of a brand, design, patent or copyright without the permission of the rights holder, such as production, sale or offering for sale, is generally defined as intellectual property rights violation or intellectual property theft.

Despite the existence of the necessary national and international legal regulations for the protection of intellectual property rights, today, according to the OECD (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development), the trade in counterfeit, smuggled and fake products is over 500 billion dollars worldwide. In Turkey, the trade in counterfeit, fake and smuggled products is estimated to be over 20 billion dollars, but these estimates are much lower than the truth due to the lack of sufficient awareness studies on intellectual property rights and the inability to effectively combat the sale of counterfeit products.

The widespread production and sale of counterfeit, fake and smuggled products in almost every field, especially in medicines, food and beverages, clothing, alcoholic beverages, automotive and component systems, electrical appliances and electronic products, tobacco products, fuel, perfumes, cosmetics and personal care products, causes irreparable damages in the fields of health and employment, as well as economic damages.

When viewed from a legal perspective, in the event of an intellectual property right being violated by others due to the unfair use of a product, i.e. the violation of an intellectual property right, it is possible for the rights holder to follow up on such unfair uses and to prevent existing or potential violations by filing a lawsuit in the competent courts.

For example, in the event of a trademark infringement, the trademark owner may take legal action. Infringement of trademark rights has both criminal and legal consequences. After the infringement is detected, the penal provisions regarding trademark infringement will be applied, and depending on the nature of the crime, individuals are punished with 1-3 years of imprisonment and a judicial fine of up to 20,000 days. Trademark owners who have suffered damages from the act of infringement may also file a lawsuit for material and moral compensation.

However, due to the lack of sufficient work, sensitivity and awareness studies on this issue, unfortunately, the damages we have explained below continue to occur continuously.

What is Imitation, Knockoff and Counterfeit Product?
A counterfeit product refers to an item that, including its packaging, bears a registered trademark for an identical or similar product of the rights holder or a trademark that cannot be distinguished from this trademark in terms of its essential aspects, and thus violates the right secured under the provisions of the Industrial Property Law etc.

A Knockoff refers to products that are copied or contain such copies without the consent of the right holder of the item subject to copyright or related rights or design rights or the person authorized by this right holder in the country where the product is produced, according to the provisions of the Law on Intellectual and Artistic Works No. 5846. These products can be physical or, due to the prevalence of technology, they can also be digitalized products.

What are the Effects of Intellectual Property Right Violations?
The damages caused by imitation, counterfeit and illegal products negatively affect many individuals and organizations, especially producers, consumers, employees and national economies, primarily in economic, social and health terms.

Its effects on rightful producers, especially producers who experience serious economic losses due to trade in counterfeit products, cannot provide the necessary employment to their employees due to the economic damage they are deprived of, face the danger of suspending R&D activities, and experience reputational losses due to the damage many consumers receive due to imitation or counterfeit products they think are original products.

Its effects on consumers, in the G20 countries alone, over 3000 people lose their lives annually due to imitation or counterfeit consumer products. In addition, it is thought that many consumers demand imitation or fake products only because they do not respect intellectual property, have health and safety concerns, have budget constraints or want to supply cheap products, that is, because they know that these products are not legal products but their prices are cheaper, but in fact a considerable number of consumers are either completely deceived when purchasing an imitation product, that is, they buy these products thinking that they are legal products. When it is taken into consideration that imitation products are sold widely, especially in stores and hotels with a certain level of recognition, it is obvious that many consumers are deceived and their lives are put at risk.

Its effects on employment are the shift of employment from right holder companies to companies that violate rights and have insecure and inappropriate conditions, i.e. generally poor working conditions, due to the decrease in sales volumes of rights holders. This is one of the main negative effects of counterfeit and fake product trade on employment.

Its effects on innovation and growth are the decrease in sales volumes of rights holders due to counterfeit and fake product trade, and the decrease in the willingness of right holder companies to engage in innovation, investment, R&D and other creative activities.

Its social effects are the increase in economic resources or income flows due to counterfeit, fake and smuggled trade of criminal organizations and the negative environmental effects of counterfeit and fake products that are below standard, and the negative environmental effects of counterfeit and fake product waste.

Its effects on governments are the decrease in taxes collected from intellectual property right holders due to counterfeit, fake and smuggled product trade, and the fact that it is not possible to properly tax counterfeit and imitation product manufacturers and sellers, and governments experience serious economic losses; it is also clear that it is negatively affected because counterfeit, fake and smuggled trade finances criminal organizations.