Özet:

Proprietor of a trademark can object to application for registration of trademarks because of identity or similarity of marks within framework the conditions in the Industrial Property Law No. 6769. S/he can also hinder to illegal use of trademark by force of an action for infringement. However, these rights can be used only if the scope of trademarks protection covers the existing case. Determining the scope of trademarks protection depends on several criterions such as originality of registered trademark, registered classes of goods or services and whether trademark is well-known or not. Similarly, it is also important whether there is likelihood of confusion or possibility to take unfair advantages from registered trademark or potentiality to harm distinctive character of trademark. Besides all these, scope of protection is mainly connected to power of distinctiveness of registered mark. The stronger distinctiveness mark has, the wider protection it acquires.   In this study, we examine the effects of distinctiveness on the scope of trademark’s protection. In this context, “well-known trademark” as an example of strong distinctiveness and “weak trademark” as an example of weak distinctiveness are examined. Especially, we try to figure out the consequences of trademarks that are both well-known and include weak elements at the same time. We evaluate the two different approaches in McDonald’s cases of Turkish Court of Cassation and Court of Justice of European Union. Both courts evaluate the problem whether the scope of protection of well-known trademark (“McDonald’s”) includes the weak element (“Mc”), differently. 

Anahtar Kelimeler: