US embassy cable - 05ANKARA939

UNCLAS ANKARA 000939 
 
SIPDIS 
 
USTR FOR LERRION/BPECK 
USEU FOR CHRIS WILSON 
USPTO FOR ELAINE WU 
USDOC FOR ITA/MAC/DEFALCO 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: ETRD, KIPR, TU 
SUBJECT:  TURKEY: DATA EXCLUSIVITY DEMARCHE TO MFA 
 
REF:  A. ANKARA 839, B. STATE 19340 
 
SENSITIVE BUT UNCLASSIFIED. 
 
1.  (SBU)  Following-up on our meetings with the Health 
Ministry and Foreign Trade Under Secretariat (ref A), 
DCM made ref B demarche to MFA Director General for the 
Americas Selhattin Alpar on February 18.  The DCM 
highlighted the important role intellectual property 
issues have played in our bilateral relationship and 
welcomed the progress represented by new Turkish 
regulations protecting data exclusivity.  Drawing on 
the points in ref B, the DCM noted the loopholes that 
undermined the effectiveness of the new regulation and 
the potential implications for, among other things, 
investment. 
 
2.  (SBU)  Alpar offered no information in addition to 
that reported in ref A.  He asked for U.S. 
understanding of the progress that Turkey has made in 
improving its intellectual property regime, as well as 
for the difficulties this had entailed.  He said 
Turkey's goal was to have in place an IP regime that 
afforded the same protections as those in the U.S. and 
EU.  He hoped that any deficiencies in current 
legislation would have a limited commercial impact and 
would, in time, be overcome and noted that foreign 
companies have access to Turkey's judicial system in 
the meantime.  Alpar added that any shortcomings in 
regulations were not aimed at any particular foreign 
company, but reflected the "social, legal, and 
budgetary" difficulties inherent in the creation of a 
modern IP regime.  He asked that the U.S. government 
encourage joint ventures between U.S. and Turkish 
pharmaceutical companies to facilitate, presumably, 
their adaptation to such a modern IP environment. 
 
3.  (SBU)  Post Comment:  The new data exclusivity 
regulations are the most progress we have seen in 
post's years of work on the data exclusivity issue.  At 
the same time, we cannot hold out much hope that the 
remaining deficiencies regarding data protection will 
be corrected in the near term.  We will, however, 
continue to advocate aggressively on this issue -- as 
we did in a separate February 18 meeting with the 
Foreign Trade Under Secretariat's DG for EU Affairs -- 
and will provide additional commentary for the Special 
301 review. 
 
EDELMAN