Copyright is concerned with protecting the work, that is the expression of thoughts and human intellect. Copyright and other related subjects are mainly arranged within 5846 numbered Turkish Copyright Law.
Work is defined in the Turkish Copyright Law as: 'any kind of intellectual and artistic product bearing the characteristics of its owner and which is considered a work of science and literature, music, fine arts or cinema.'
The span of copyright in Turkey is the protection of literary works, musical works, artistic works, and cinematographic works, which are defined in articles 2, 3, 4, and 5 of 5846 numbered Turkish Copyright Law. In this respect, there are four main work categories arranged according to the numerus clausus principle. The main work categories are restricted whereas the sub-types of these work categories are not.
These works shall include every production in the literary, scientific, and artistic domain, whatever may be the mode or form of its expression, such as books, pamphlets, and other writings, lectures, dramatic or dramatico-musical works, choreographic works, musical compositions with or without words, works expressed in language and writing in any way and computer programs expressed in any form and their preliminary designs, provided that these lead to a program in the next stage; cinematographic works to which are assimilated works expressed by a process analogous to cinematography, works of drawing, painting, architecture, sculpture, engraving, lithography, photographic works, to which are assimilated works expressed by a process analogous to photography, works of applied art, illustrations, maps, plans, sketches and three-dimensional works relative to geography, topography, architecture or science, etc.
Adaptations, even if not deemed in these four main categories because of their undetached characteristic should also be mentioned in this respect. Adaptations are intellectual and artistic products created through the use of another work and are not independent as compared to such work. Adaptations shall include translations; the conversion of one of the works such as novels, stories, poems, and dramas to another of these kinds; the conversion of works of music, fine arts, science, and literature into films or the conversion of the same into a form suitable for taking into a film and broadcasting through radio and television; musical arrangements; conversion of works of fine arts from one form into other forms, etc.
KIRCI Law Office (KIRCI Avukatlık Bürosu) renders a wide range of services regarding copyright in Turkey from the representation of our clients before Intellectual Property Courts to representation before the Court of Cassation/Supreme Courts as copyright lawyers.