The EUGIPP (EU-Georgia Intellectual Property Project) is supporting Sakpatenti to draft a set of examination guidelines on trade marks and design as well as on enforcement of IP rights. Such guidelines are intended to directly benefit Sakpatenti examiners, enforcement authorities and users on the predictability and consistency of IP practices in the country. They will also favour the convergence of Georgian practice towards European standards.
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).
In 2014, Georgia and the European Union established a preferential trade regime by signing an Association Agreement and Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Area. It builds a foundation for Georgian political association and economic integration with the EU, and allows both partners to trade freely with each other. The Agreement includes a chapter devoted to intellectual property rights (IPRs).
Arise + IPR offers a wide range of resources. In this section you will find studies on intellectual property and information and resources on IP enforcement. Moreover, this section offers a repository of IP laws, which are available at the IP Information Centre.
The main EUGIPP Georgian partners are: National Intellectual Property Center of Georgia (Sakpatenti), Ministry of Finance of Georgia, Prosecutor’s Office of Georgia, High School of Justice and High Council of Justice of Georgia, Ministry of Education of Georgia, Ministry of Economy and Sustainable Development of Georgia and Business Associations.
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).
