Counterfeit Perfume Packaging And Components In Türkiye: Recent Developments In Criminal Trademark Enforcement

Counterfeit perfume enforcement does not always involve finished products ready for sale. In raids targeting manufacturers, warehouses and suppliers, authorities may instead encounter empty perfume bottles, caps, packaging materials, labels, molds/printing plates and other components bearing counterfeit trademarks, which are intended to be assembled or filled at a later stage.

Under the Turkish Industrial Property Code No. 6769 ("IP Code"), trademark protection is acquired through registration. Article 7 grants the trademark owner the right to prevent unauthorized use of an identical or similar sign and expressly recognizes affixing the sign to goods or their packaging as a form of trademark use that may be prohibited. Article 29 identifies unauthorized use falling within Article 7, as well as counterfeiting a trademark, as acts of trademark infringement.