Pursuant to Additional Art. 4.6 of Law No. 5651, social network providers, whether based in Türkiye or abroad, that receive more than one million daily visitors from Türkiye are obligated to take the necessary measures to retain the data of their Turkish users within Türkiye. According to Art. 13 of the Procedures and Principles concerning Social Network Providers, priority must be given to basic user information and any other data specified by the Information and Communication Technologies Authority.

Circular No. 2019/12 provides that data of public institutions and organisations should not be stored in cloud storage services except for the institutions’ own private systems or local service providers controlled by the institutions.

The Regulation on the Processing of Personal Data and the Protection of Confidentiality in the Electronic Communications Sector reaffirms the data processing principles set out in Art. 4.2 of the Data Protection Law mandating that operators adhere to these principles when managing personal data. According to Art. 5 of the Regulation, cross-border transfer of traffic and location data is prohibited on the basis of national security concerns.
Data processing in the electronic communications sector was previously regulated by the Regulation on Processing and Privacy of Personal Data in the Electronic Communications Sector. The regulation imposed strict conditions on the transfer of personal data outside of Türkiye by telecommunications providers. However, the Constitutional Court invalidated the basis of this regulation, and as a result, the regulation was considered null and void.

According to Decision No. 2018/DK-YED/27, the emergency call (eCall) in vehicles, along with servers that provide the communication system allowing for value-added services, are to be located in Türkiye, and personal data in such systems cannot be transferred abroad without explicit consent. To achieve this, it is mandatory for the SIM cards, electronic SIMs (eSIMs) or modules having SIM card properties to be procured from operators licensed to provide mobile electronic communication in Türkiye or to be programmable to allow them to be controlled by such operators.
With Decision No. 2019/DK-TED/053, the localisation requirements are no longer limited to eCall services only, encompassing all eSIM applications. Moreover, all infrastructure, system and storage units, including equipment and software related to the eSIM platform in GSMA standards, shall be established in Türkiye by a licensed local operator (or by a third party to be appointed by such local operators, but liability remaining with the local operator). The decision also states that all data should be kept within Turkish borders. Moreover, where the devices manufactured to be used in Türkiye or imported to the country have remotely programmable SIM (eUICC, eSIM/embedded SIM, etc.) technologies, their relevant modules are expected to be programmable only by local mobile operators and only local mobile operator profiles may be installed.

According to Art. 171. b of the Decree-law No.551, patent agents entered in the records of the Turkish Patent Institute have the capacity to act before the Institute. The persons domiciled abroad have to be represented by patent agents.

Türkiye is a party to the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT).

Türkiye has a copyright regime under Law No. 5846 on Intellectual and Artistic Works. However, the exceptions do not follow the fair use or fair dealing model, therefore limiting the lawful use of copyrighted work by others. Arts. 30-37 list the exceptions, which include the use of the work before the court and other government offices for its proof and as the subject of a proceeding in the absolute security and penalty procedures; the inclusion of some parts of the intellectual and artistic works in the media used for sign, sound or image transmission in relation to daily events, provided that these have the characteristics of an interview; among others.

Despite positive developments in recent years, concerns among rights holders regarding overall IP protection and enforcement in Türkiye persist. Rights holders continue to note the use of unlicensed software by some government agencies and high levels of online piracy. Significant issues are reported with software piracy, piracy of printed works, and online piracy, with the enforcement system, including judges, prosecutors, and police, failing to address IP-related crimes adequately.

Türkiye has ratified the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Copyright Treaty.

Türkiye has ratified the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Performances and Phonograms Treaty.

Türkiye lacks a comprehensive framework in place that provides effective protection of trade secrets, but there are limited measures addressing some issues related to them. Trade secrets can be protected under the Unfair Competition Provisions of the Turkish Commercial Code and the Turkish Criminal Code No. 5237. Art. 56 of the Commercial Code allows persons who have suffered damages or who may be exposed to the risk of such damage to apply to the competent court for the following:
- Declare whether the defendant's action is unfair;
- Prevent unfair competition;
- Removal of the material condition caused by the action of unfair competition; rectification of statements if wrong or misleading statements commit the unfair competition; and destruction of the means used in the unfair competition action, provided that it is unavoidable to prevent the infringement;
- In the case of a faulty action for compensation of damages, there is a reference to the conditions set forth by Art. 58 of the Turkish Code of Obligations.

It is reported that passive infrastructure sharing in Türkiye to deliver telecom services to end users is mandated, and it is practised both in the mobile and fixed sectors based on commercial agreements.

Turk Telecom (the incumbent) was privatised in 2005. However, at the moment, 25% of the share of Turk Telecom belongs to the Republic of Türkiye Ministry of Treasury and Finance, and 5% belongs to the Türkiye Wealth Fund, which is a sovereign wealth fund owned by the Government of Türkiye. It is reported that Turk Telecom has a de facto monopoly over network access services that are essential for service providers in different segments of the market.

Türkiye does not mandate functional separation for operators with significant market power (SMP) in the telecom market. However, accounting separation is required. SMP operators having accounting separation obligations in relevant markets prepare accounting separation reports annually.

The Regulation on the Implementation of the Turkish Industrial Cooperation Program gives civilian ministries the authority to impose commercial offset requirements in procurement contracts. A foreign company that wins a Turkish government procurement contract may be required to produce a certain percentage locally or with a local partner or transfer technology in order to provide its products and services. It is reported that the Turkish Government has imposed these requirements in the telecom and ICT sectors, among others.