District Court Confirms Regulatory Data Protection Is An IP Right

Regulatory data protection has been a contentious issue since it was introduced into Turkish law via the Ministry of Health Licensing Regulation. The most problematic areas are:

• the implementation of regulatory data protection as market exclusivity, despite contradictory wording in the Licensing Regulation; and
• limiting the regulatory data protection right to within the patent term.

When this issue comes before IP courts in cases of unfair use of data by third parties within the regulatory data protection term, most defendants contend that the commercial courts should have jurisdiction. However, in the case at hand, the IP Court itself rejected jurisdiction and the defendant appealed the decision before the district court.