Warner Bros wins copyright lawsuit against Turkish store

Özge EĞRİKAR - ISTANBUL

Warner Bros Entertainment, the producer of the Harry Potter film series, has won the legal dispute initiated by its in-house lawyers against a Turkish store accused of using the Harry Potter trademark on its products without authorization.

This incident follows the seizure of 250 ink pen sets featuring Harry Potter brand logos by an Istanbul customs office. It was subsequently revealed that the products were owned by a Turkish store named "Keskin Hediyecilik."

Following the identification of the origin of products, a customs directorate officer took photos of them and sent the images to Warner Bros authorities for further investigation to verify whether the products were counterfeit.

Subsequently, the company’s investigation revealed that the products were indeed produced without authorization, were of poor quality, and posed a health risk to both consumers and the general public. As a result, the in-house lawyers filed a lawsuit against the Turkish store with the Büyükçekmece Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office in Istanbul.

The chief public prosecutor’s office decided to seize the products belonging to the local store, with the lawyers representing Warner Bros filing a petition with an Istanbul civil court for intellectual and industrial property rights, requesting the extermination of the counterfeit products.

Declaring its ruling, the court accepted the Warner Bros company's complaint and ordered the destruction of the counterfeit products with the Harry Potter name and logo.