Elif Betül Akın, Dr.

Head of Reexamination and Evaluation Department, Turkish Patent and Trademark Office

Elif Betül Akın is the Head of Re-examination and Evaluation Department and President of the Boards of Appeal (BoA) of the Turkish Patent and Trademark Office (TÜRKPATENT). After starting her career as an IP Expert at TÜRKPATENT, she has held several managerial positions within the Office since 2011, as the Head of International Relations Department and the Head of Trademarks Department. In January 2017, in line with the enactment of the new IP Law and forming of BoA as a separate administrative unit, she was appointed to her current position, where she is responsible for handling of patent, design, trademark and geographical indication oppositions and appeals.

Throughout her career, she has been involved in some major projects and studies at the Office such as co-coordination of the EU funded Twinning Project, creating administrative capacity for implementation of the Madrid Protocol within the Office, modernization and digitization of the work flows, drafting of manuals and examination guidelines, preparation of the new IP Law and lately introduction of procedures for patent appeals and post-grant oppositions.

She has been lecturing at the LL.M Program in IP Law jointly offered by the WIPO Academy, TÜRKPATENT and Ankara University since 2017.

Elif Betül Akın has received her M.Sc. and Ph.D. degree in Food Engineering from the Hacettepe University, Ankara. She also holds an LL.M degree in Intellectual Property and Competition Law from Munich Intellectual Property Law Center –Max Planck Institute, Munich.