TÜRKIYE Law and Practice Contributed by: Meltem Manav and Yeşim Kumova, KM Legal
tion, it qualifies as a protected work under Article 6/11 and benefits from full copyright protection. Non-public datasets may also qualify as trade secrets if the relevant criteria are met, and contractual safe- guards may apply. Scraping and data extraction are assessed across multiple regimes. They may infringe copyright or database rights, constitute unfair competition through unauthorised use of business outputs, or give rise to contractual liability under the TCC via breach of website terms. Unauthorised access may also trigger criminal liability, and the processing of personal data may engage data protection rules. 7.2 AI-Generated Works and Inventorship/ Authorship Turkish law contains no specific regime on AI inven- torship, ownership or legal personality. Under FSEK, authorship is limited to natural persons and legal entities may hold only economic rights. According- ly, AI-generated outputs are protectable only where they reflect sufficient human intellectual input; purely autonomous outputs fall outside the framework. There is no settled case law, though alignment with Euro- pean practice is anticipated. In patent law, the inven- tor must be a natural person. AI is treated as a tool, although ownership may vest in legal entities. In the absence of specific legislation, businesses typically allocate ownership of AI-assisted outputs through contract, which commonly provides that outputs vest in the employer or commissioning party. Where out- puts are not disclosed, protection may additionally be structured through trade secret regimes, supple- mented by confidentiality undertakings. 7.3 Training Data, Model Development and Infringement Risk As there is no text-and-data-mining exception, only the existing statutory exceptions under FSEK apply. Therefore, only the limited exceptions, limitations and defences outlined in 3.6 Limitations, Exceptions and Defences apply. The use of trade secrets in training datasets like- wise entails risk where the information is unlawfully obtained, used or disclosed, potentially triggering
claims under unfair competition and contract law. As noted in 3.7 Copyright Enforcement and Remedies , rights holders may seek injunctions and damages and may also pursue criminal remedies where applicable. Even absent copyright protection, unauthorised use may still be actionable under the TCC. Pending legislative proposals envisage a licensing- based regime for AI training and data mining, requir- ing remuneration for the use of copyrighted content. 7.4 Enforcement Against AI-Enabled Infringement Under Turkish law, there is currently no AI-specific IP enforcement regime, and infringements involving generative AI are primarily addressed through existing intellectual property and general liability rules. Rights holders may pursue infringers using AI tools under FSEK, as well as unfair competition provisions. Claims are typically directed against the user/operator of the AI system who deploys the infringing output in commerce. As regards evidence and causation, courts apply gen- eral principles of civil procedure. The claimant must establish infringement, fault and damage. However, in AI-related cases, attribution may become complex where multiple actors (user, developer, platform) are involved. Turkish law has not yet developed a set- tled approach to evidentiary standards in this con- text. With respect to secondary liability, recent legis- lative proposals indicate a trend towards extending responsibility beyond the end-user. In particular, users may be held primarily liable for unlawful acts carried out using AI, while developers and service providers may face enhanced or contributory liability, especial- ly where they enable or fail to prevent unlawful use. However, a clear and comprehensive framework has not yet been fully established. 8. Intersections and Overlaps 8.1 Choice of Protection and Strategic Considerations The choice between different forms of IP protection depends on the nature of the subject matter, the type
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