There is no doubt that video games industry has grown tremendously in recent years and become a multi-billion dollar economic value across the globe. The industry has also pioneered technological breakthroughs, created new job opportunities and, moreover, continue to be one of the most important elements shaping modern culture.

Global Market Size: As per the January 2024 update to the Newzoo Global Games Market Report the global market has reached to $184 billion in revenue in 2023, with +0.6% growth year-over-year. According to the report this figure is inclined to increase future years.

Video games surpass other entertainment sectors in terms of annual revenue. For example, in 2023, the global revenue from video games exceeded the total revenue of the film and music industries.

Local Market Size: As per Gaming in Turkiye report dated 2023, the Turkish gaming industry has reached a size of $580 million as of 2023.

As it is known, video games are products that are formed by the combination of various elements that are individually protected in the context of intellectual property law. The video games contain at least two main parts namely the audiovisual elements such as pictures, visual/video recordings, sounds, music, and software, which technically manage said elements and allows the players to interact with differing features of the game. These elements all together can be claimed to enjoy copyright protection and the the Law No. 5846 on Intellectual and Artistic Works (Copyright Act).

What is copyrightable work under the Turkish Law?

The concept of "work" is defined at the Copyright Act:

Work: Any intellectual or artistic product bearing the characteristic of its author, which is deemed a scientific and literary or musical work or work of fine arts or cinematographic work.

Therefore any audiovisual elements such as pictures, visual/video recordings, sounds, music are protectable works under the work definition of the Copyright Act.

Under Copyright Act, the software part of the videogames is also protected as works within the scope of computer programs as copyrightable works.

It should be mentioned that the jurisprudence and the doctrine is not very precise on, under which category would the video games be protected as copyrights. The question as to whether the video game will be protected a cinematographic or computer software is not yet consistently responded in the absence of a specific category mentioned for video games in the Copyright Act. However, still such debate does not avoid the protection of the videogames under the copyrights.

Who is the owner of the copyrights?

Turkiye is a party to the Berne Convention. According to the Turkish Copyright Act the work enjoys a copyright protection upon its creation without any formality, registration, or procedural ceremony. Therefore, video game can enjoy copyright protection with its creation by the author.

According to Article 8 of the Copyright Act the creator of a work is deemed to be the owner of that work. The creator of the work can of course have the right to transfer, licence or effect any transaction over the ownership rights.

The Copyright Act also regulates the possibility to have more than one author (joint author) by stating that if a work created jointly by more than one person can be divided into parts, each person shall be deemed the owner of the part he/she created.

Moreover, Article 11 of the Copyright Act provides a rebuttable presumption, which states that the person/entity mentioned on the first published version of the work will be deemed to be the owner unless it is proved in the contrary.

These all above mentioned types may always bring the possibility of a potential conflict in the absence of any registration which formalize the ownership.

Is there any possibility to register the Copyrights for avoiding the ownership disputes ?

Although the Copyright Act provides the protection to the work by its creation, the Regulation on Record and Registry of Intellectual and Artistic Works stipulates that the phonogram producers that make the first fixation of sounds and the producers that make the first fixation of films are obliged to record and register their rights in order to facilitate proof of right ownership, to exercise their economic rights, and to prevent the violation of their rights by third parties without the aim of creating any rights.

Through the registration of these works before the General Directorate of Copyrights, the right holders may apply for Banderoles. These banderoles are used to trace the licensed copies of the work to prevent piracy.

Optional Registration for Copyrights:

While the registration for literary works, computer software and works of fine art is not mandatory, it is possible to file an optional registration for obtaining copyright protection for soft wares. The applicant will be required to file a copyright application for copyrights such as the following information or documents:

Power of Attorney

Undertaking Letter which signed and stamped by the person who is authorized to represent the applicant company.

Title of the work, Creation date of the work, Country where it is created, the date when and in which country the work was made public, a short description of the work, the name of the applicant, the owner of the work, other owners of the work if any.

The file of the work to be registered. This can also be in '.rar' or '.zip' format.

For software applications, the technical field of the software it is used for. The Ministry will also get some pages of the Codes depending on whether the codes constitutes a trade secret or not.

What is the benefit of the copyright registration?

Copyright Registration can be used for enforcing the copyrights before the Customs. Aside from Banderoles, the registration certificates can also be used to apply for a customs watch before the Customs Authorities upon a central recordal of the copyright. The acceptance of the copyright recordal by the Customs Authority will activate the customs monitoring on the passing of possibly pirated goods in order to initiate the suspension of release of such products especially if the work is being commercialized via any portable carrier or hardware.

Copyright Registration can be used as a documentary evidence for proof of ownership. The registration certificates of copyrighted works are also very practical and useful tools to prove the ownership and to determine context of the work in possible civil and criminal actions. These certificates are also used during the enforcement of the copyright in case of infringement before the Court. As the framework of the copyrighted work is clearly defined in the certificate, the examination will be carried through more effectively, which increases the chances of obtaining injunctive measures.