August 8, 2001

By Okan Can, Attorney At Law

With Amended Turkish Copyright Act, registration of copyright has become possible in Turkey in conformity with the Provisions of TRIPS Agreement.

Law on Intellectual and Artistic Works (Copyright Act) No. 5846 of 5 December 1951 amended by Law No. 4630 of 21 February 2001 in conformity with the provisions of TRIPs. According to one of the amended Articles namely Article 13 of the Copyright Act No. 5846 provides that:

"The authors of musical and cinematographic works and the producers thereof shall record and register their works without the purpose of establishing the copyright in order to prevent the infringement of their economical and moral rights. Likewise for the same purpose the authorized beneficiaries in respect of the works and the economical rights thereof may be registered/recorded also for the other groups of works upon the request of the author. All the procedures and the guidelines for the registration and the recordal of such rights are to be specified and determined in the implementing Regulation to be issued by the Ministry of Culture."

The registration or recordal of the copyright will not have a constitutive effect for the establishement of the copyright, but will serve for evidencing the existence of the copyright. However, the Ministry of Culture has not yet prepared and issued the Regulation for the registration and recordal of copyrights.