As of March 2020, the Georgian Intellectual Property Center (Sakpatenti) is starting a legislative reform process on several IP-related subjects, such as trade marks, designs, copyrights and enforcement of IP rights. This process will contribute to assess the status of IP rights protection in Georgia with the purpose to converge towards European standards (acquis communautaire). 

Sakpatenti is the first non-EU IP office which has aligned its practice of design representation with the common practice of the IP offices of the European Union Intellectual Property Network (EUIPN).

On 30 March 2020, the IP Office of Georgia published a Practice Paper concerning Graphic Representation of Designs, which is a result of the joint efforts of the National Intellectual Property Center of Georgia (Sakpatenti) and the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO).

Local artists, designers, and artisans have a great deal of potential in preserving their culture and wisdom, empowering their communities and boosting their industries' economy using intellectual property. In light of this aspect, the EU-funded project ARISE+ IPR produces a set of promotional videos addressing the designers in rural areas, with the primary goals to help raise their awareness of intellectual property rights and highlight the economic and cultural values of their work.

Suriname is in the process of getting a new Industrial Property Law approved, covering patents, utility models, trademarks, designs, and GIs. At Suriname’s request, CarIPI provides technical support to review the final text.

On 1 March 2020, the EU-funded project ARISE+ IPR supported the Department of Intellectual Property of the Ministry of Commerce, Thailand, in the organisation of the ‘DIP Mini Marathon 2020: Stop Piracy’ at the premises of the Ministry of Commerce in Nonthaburi, Thailand.

CarIPI collaborated with the World Intellectual Property Office (WIPO) in conducting a sub-regional workshop on the Hague System for the International Registration of Industrial Designs, in Kingston (Jamaica) on 4-5 March 2020. The workshop aimed to build capacities in the region on international design protection. The activity contributed to enhance legal and policy frameworks in the area of designs, a direct goal of the CarIPI project.

In 2021, ARISE+ IPR organised a series of online roundtable discussions for ASEAN judges and prosecutors on 26 January (Malaysia), 2 February (Thailand) and 30 March (Cambodia and Lao PDR). The roundtable discussions covered the enforcement of IP rights in the judicial environment, IPR protection and enforcement in ASEAN Member States, and IPR protection from the perspective of Civil and Criminal Law. The roundtable discussions also included the sharing of EU decisions on IPR cases.

The ARISE+ IPR team supported the Follow-up Training on Madrid Protocol Operations and Trade Mark Examination for examiners from the IP Offices respectively of Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia and Lao PDR on 8 and 10 December 2020. The follow-up training served as subsequent sessions of the one-week attachment training provided to these examiners by ARISE+ IPR and the Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines (IPOPHL) in Manila, the Philippines during 5-9 August 2019.

In the context of the EU-Georgia Intellectual Property Project (EUGIPP) inception phase, the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) organised a fact finding visit to Tbilisi from 3 to 5 February 2020.

The visit facilitated the project organisational set up and helped to understand and identify the needs from key IP players in Georgia. It also helped to prioritise and schedule some activities in view of drafting of the overall work plan (OWP) and first annual work plan (AWP).